Category: The New Yorker

Concussion Injury in the NFL: The New Yorker

Ben McGrath’s piece in this week’s New Yorker is here.

Money quote from our friend and colleague Geoff Ling:

Colonel Geoffrey Ling, a neurologist with the Defense Department, had come to the InterContinental to share some of the government’s research with the N.F.L.’s medical brain trust. (Concussions among the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, one doctor told me, could be “the next Agent Orange.”) “If you look historically, what really hurts our soldiers from blasts is artillery shells, mortar shells,” Ling said. “The combat helmet was designed particularly for mitigation of fragments. It does have some ballistic protection. You could shoot at the thing point blank with a 9-millimetre pistol, and you won’t penetrate it. That’s pretty doggone good. I’m surprised New York City policemen aren’t wearing the doggone thing. But, like, I wouldn’t play football with the thing. It ain’t that good.”

In this week’s New Yorker: The Biological Bulletin Editorial Board

Not surprisingly (it’s Thanksgiving week here in the US) the current edition of The New Yorker is on food. If you get a chance, be sure to take in Burkhard Bilger’s piece, “Nature’s Spoils–The Delights of Fermented Food”. Two of The Biological Bulletin’s editorial board members, Lynn Margulis and Margaret Mcfall-Ngai, are quoted extensively. I’m using an email interface into blogger, so I can’t
link to the actual article (the link is to the abstract) and since it’s current, my guess is that it’s
still behind the firewall. Nevertheless, for loyal readers who take
The New Yorker, it’s a real treat.