Monster MRI Slices Deep Into Brain

A reporter for the BBC takes a look at the largest MRI machine in the U.K.:

The 40-tonne magnet [a metric "tonne" is a couple hundred pounds heavier than an American 'ton'] was delivered in December 2004 and building it into a working scanner was no simple matter.

With a magnetic field 140,000 times that of the Earth's,
it throws out a powerful force that has to be shielded in concrete andmore than 200 tonnes of iron.

Yikes. Makes me wonder if hospitals have to move their morgues to higher floors because heavy machines can only be placed in the basement.

So what does it do?

It promises the most detailed images yet of the brain,
as well as intricate real-time imaging of thought processes that can beused to study mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

Even to my untrained eye, I could see the stark contrast between the new and the old.

The seven tesla image was crisper, with far more detail.