More good news on the helmet front. The Phillips Head Protection System protects against rotational injury, the kind of thing that happens if your helmet hits the pavement and digs in instead of sliding, causing your head to twist violently which then results in your brain rotating inside your skull. That’s bad. Here’s more:
In more than 60% of motorcycle accidents, the head is spun round with so much force that the brain rotates inside the skull. Remember, the brain is a jelly-like substance that not only rotates as a single mass, but also spins within itself, setting up internal shear forces, resulting in the tearing of nerve cells and tiny blood vessels. That is rotational brain injury!
More on rotational injury.
The Phillips Head Protection System is a :
… high-tech polymer membrane [that] has been developed together with a lubricant that allows it to slip in a controlled manner over the inner carbon-kevlar shell.
Essentially, PHPS provides a low friction, sliding interface between the helmet and the road. The head slips and slides instead of twisting and rotating.
The best part of all of this is the obvious amount of work being done on a number of fronts to improve helmets. I like it.
via Wired
Eric says
WOW! I want one.