But a big attraction is the 57-year-old Yau himself: He's the leading Chinese mathematician and ranks among the top ten in the world, says Phillip Griffiths, a math professor and a former president of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

FORBES: Plugging A Math Gap

Maybe the impact of concussion-related lawsuits and the reports of former players shooting themselves in the heart in order to preserve their brains for future study will be felt someday soon.

FORBES: Why Is Football So Popular?

Ali, a former Bradley fellow at the Center for the Study of Pubic Choice (founded by the late James Buchanan), at George Mason University, wrote an academic paper describing the similarities between bureaucracies and charities.

FORBES: Like Humans Need Oxygen, Bureaucrats Always Need More Money

Boston University's center for study of the disease reported last month that 34 former pro players and nine who played only college football suffered from CTE.

WSJ: Junior Seau: NIH Study Finds Football Star Had Brain Disease

While Mitchell did not identify the researchers making the requests, among the institutions the family could donate Seau's brain to is Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, the research center that found former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson suffered degenerative damage to his brain because of repeated hits.

CNN: Junior Seau's death classified as a suicide

Former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin estimated in a study for the American Action Forum that more than 40 million workers would lose their employer coverage due to these perverse incentives.

FORBES: Look Out Below, The Obamacare Chaos Is Coming

Nina Gurung, who carried out the University of Kent study, says it is a "relatively stable and comfortable" job for former Gurkhas.

BBC: How Gurkhas came to be Britain's new security army

The disease has been found in the brains of 33 of 34 former NFL players, including Duerson, studied at the Boston University School of Medicine Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy as of last May.

CNN: NFL wants players' suit over concussions dismissed

Sir Nicholas is a former chief economist at the World Bank and author of an influential study of climate-change economics for the British government.

ECONOMIST: What to do?

Rostow, a former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and former Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and another highly respected co-author of the Center study, observed that America's commitments to its allies must be made clearly, publicly and after explicit public and congressional debate of the implications.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: A US force for the Golan Heights? A roundtable discussion