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At its best, American football is full of grace, strategy and thrills. Unfortunately, many of the components that have made the sport so popular – speed, power, contact – also make it extremely dangerous, especially when played at the highest level. Recent research has overwhelmingly shown that, over time, even routine football collisions contribute to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease. However, the most dangerous hits are those that result in traumatic brain injuries. In 2017, the National Football League (NFL) recorded the highest number of such injuries since it started keeping track six years ago, even as it has attempted to make the game safer. A different kind of ‘highlight reel’, this short film from the US filmmaker and data visualisation artist Josh Begley features all 281 reported concussions from the 2017 NFL season. By manipulating the speed and direction of the footage, Begley grapples with both the sport’s allure and its brutality.
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Chemistry
Why do the building blocks of life possess a mysterious symmetry?
12 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle
8 minutes
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Cosmology
Tiny, entangled universes that form or fizzle out – a theory of the quantum multiverse
11 minutes
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Music
The peculiar beauty of a song caught between composition and improvisation
3 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A beginner’s guide to a joyful Persian tradition of spring renewal and rebirth
3 minutes
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Astronomy
The history of astronomy is a history of conjuring intelligent life where it isn’t
34 minutes
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Love and friendship
Love looks a bit different for a chain-smoking couple in a small apartment
11 minutes
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Metaphysics
Simple entities in universal harmony – Leibniz’s evocative perspective on reality
4 minutes
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Biography and memoir
Passed over as the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight carved out an impressive second act
13 minutes