Hi! Science reporter Belinda Smith with you this week, briefly taking the reins from your regular health newsletterer Olivia Willis.
In the past, concussion wasn't necessarily considered a serious injury, but we now know even a single knock to the head can have severe, long-term health impacts.
Yet identifying concussion can be hard. Diagnosis relies on detecting often subtle symptoms, and there's no single test that can confirm the condition.
It's thought up to half of all concussions go undiagnosed.
To help catch concussions that might otherwise slip past medical staff, players from 16 nations in the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup are wearing mouthguards that sense how quickly a player's head moves forward or backward, and how fast it rotates.
If those measurements reach a certain threshold, the mouthguard lights up and sends a Bluetooth signal, warning staff that the player sustained an impact that could lead to a concussion.
And the mouthguards have already identified potential concussions that may have been missed otherwise.
Over one weekend of the World Cup's group stages, mouthguards sent out six potential concussion alerts, one of which was not picked up by medical staff.
Also this month, the World Athletics Championships are being held in Tokyo, and participants will be feeling the heat.
And I don't only mean the pressure to win. Japan's been sweltering through record-breaking heat over the past month, and this weekend — when the championships are due to start — will see the mercury hit the mid 30s.
The heat has prompted the World Athletics president to take a shot at world leaders for climate inaction, saying "governments have not stepped up to the plate, and sport is going to have to take some unilateral judgements and decisions here".
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