What point are you trying to make here besides slapping Dave on the back? We have to understand the brain fully before it's worthwhile to push helmet technology forward? Uncle Dave's articles are usually fun but this one is pretty weak.
Everything is better than it was 20 years ago, that is how progress and evolution works. Our understanding of neuroscience is progressing just as our understanding of the mechanisms the cause TBIs is progressing. We understand now, what we didn't before that the slapping of our brain against the inside of our skull can cause a TBI and if we add a slip plane we can allow the whole head to keep rotating on impact and thus minimize the force with which our grey matter smashes into our skull. If MIPS is another slip plane after scalp and hair, all the better. These companies are testing and there are independent testers and they are all trying to make better tests and improve their products. How can you not be on board with safety advancements? It's like saying "Well we know this drug is having an adverse effect on people health but until we understand why we should keep giving it to them".
I don't think any helmet manufacturer is making a claim that "these devices will save necks and brains", they are saying "we believe that we have developed a product that improves outcomes of by reducing the trauma sustained in an impact".
It is possible MIPS does not significantly reduce trauma, but everyone is working towards better tests to determine that. Recall that we learn by failing far more than from succeeding and that we make better products by making the best one we know how and then constantly looking for improvements.
April 4, 2019, 11:23 a.m. - cyclotoine
What point are you trying to make here besides slapping Dave on the back? We have to understand the brain fully before it's worthwhile to push helmet technology forward? Uncle Dave's articles are usually fun but this one is pretty weak. Everything is better than it was 20 years ago, that is how progress and evolution works. Our understanding of neuroscience is progressing just as our understanding of the mechanisms the cause TBIs is progressing. We understand now, what we didn't before that the slapping of our brain against the inside of our skull can cause a TBI and if we add a slip plane we can allow the whole head to keep rotating on impact and thus minimize the force with which our grey matter smashes into our skull. If MIPS is another slip plane after scalp and hair, all the better. These companies are testing and there are independent testers and they are all trying to make better tests and improve their products. How can you not be on board with safety advancements? It's like saying "Well we know this drug is having an adverse effect on people health but until we understand why we should keep giving it to them". I don't think any helmet manufacturer is making a claim that "these devices will save necks and brains", they are saying "we believe that we have developed a product that improves outcomes of by reducing the trauma sustained in an impact". It is possible MIPS does not significantly reduce trauma, but everyone is working towards better tests to determine that. Recall that we learn by failing far more than from succeeding and that we make better products by making the best one we know how and then constantly looking for improvements.