Patriots or Rams? It’s Super Bowl weekend and before you put the chili on the stove, consider the risks that football players face every time they take the field. Today in The Conversation Canada, imaging scientist Jeff Dunn of the University of Calgary explains the science behind concussions and, contrary to popular belief, that MRIs are not particularly useful in diagnosing when a player has suffered a concussion.

That’s just one of several great reads as you get ready for the weekend:

• Most of you saw the viral video of the U.S. high school kid wearing a Make America Great Again hat who was smirking (or was he just smiling?) at an Indigenous elder during a demonstration in Washington. Rima Wilkes and Howard Ramos explain why we like to call out individual racists but do little to fix the systemic causes of racism.
• A group of researchers from Nipissing University spent some time following a kindergarten class as they played outside in the winter. What did they learn? Read on.
• John Gunn of Laurentian University looks at the costs of cleaning up abandoned mines – a significant problem considering there are more than 5,000 abandoned sites in Ontario where the taxpayer is on the hook for the cleanup.

And finally…the problem of plastics in the ocean has become one of the world’s most pressing environmental problems. Alisa Greenwood-Nguyen and Robin Roth of the University of Guelph tell us that the source of most plastic pollution comes from the global south, but consumers in the global north must also accept responsibility for this worldwide problem.

Regards,