Imaging Techniques: Particular Magnetic Insights

by Andreas Trabesinger Nature, 30 Jun 2005 A new imaging method intended for medical diagnosis, has been developed in the Philips research lab in Hamburg. The idea is that a liquid containing harmless magnetic particles is administered to the patient, who is then subjected to a magnetic field similar to that used in conventional magnetic resonance imaging. But in contrast to MRI, it is the particles themselves that are detected, rather than the response that they induce in surrounding tissues. Medical imaging is the main focus of the project, but magnetic particle imaging could also find applications in materials science, crack detection and fluid dynamics. Read more