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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poett and

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Speaker 1: I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, as usual, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: I've been ionized, but I'm okay. Now, okay, let's move

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Speaker 1: on to a little listener mail. This listener mail comes

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Speaker 1: from Brad, and Brad says, how about a series of

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Speaker 1: podcasts that explain the technologies of medicine between the diagnostics

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Speaker 1: like m R I X ray, CT scans and nuclear

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Speaker 1: medicine to read habilitative therapies like ultrasound and electrical stimulations.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of different possibilities. Well, Brad, we

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Speaker 1: agree with you. Now, granted those are that's a lot

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Speaker 1: of topics, so we can't really, we definitely cannot tackle

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Speaker 1: them all in one go because we would be here

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Speaker 1: for five hours and I am exhausted, So we are

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Speaker 1: going to just do one of those. However, it is

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Speaker 1: one of the more technically difficult ones to talk about

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Speaker 1: in a way it's magnetic resonance imaging or m r I.

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Speaker 1: S Yeah, you know, it's funny that you just said

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Speaker 1: five hours, because the very first m r I, which

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Speaker 1: was conducted on July third, seven, took about five hours.

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Speaker 1: That's right. It took almost five hours to get one image.

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Speaker 1: And what was weird was the image was of a

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Speaker 1: man waving. No, that's that parts a lie. Well, the

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Speaker 1: that that image was from a graduate student because the

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Speaker 1: original um, well one hesitates to use the word victim,

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Speaker 1: but subject, The original subject of the first m r

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Speaker 1: I was supposed to be the fellow who was kind

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Speaker 1: of the driving force behind inventing the m r I machine,

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Speaker 1: Raymond Domedian. Yes, now, Raymond was not able to be

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Speaker 1: the first subject of the first m r I because

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Speaker 1: he didn't fit. Yeah, he was. He had a little

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Speaker 1: too much junk in the trunk. That's that's never mind.

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Speaker 1: Get in there, dude, My my trunk has got so

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Speaker 1: much junk in it. I'm just saying so, yeah, do

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Speaker 1: Median was not able to He was disappointed when he

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Speaker 1: first used his machine because it didn't work, and at

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Speaker 1: first he thought that perhaps all this work he had

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Speaker 1: been putting into developing this device was for not and

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Speaker 1: then someone suggested that perhaps a slightly thinner subject might

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Speaker 1: be better suited for the first test, and so one

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Speaker 1: of the graduate students that was working with him stepped

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Speaker 1: up to the plate and said that they would take

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Speaker 1: the place. And indeed it worked. It did take about

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Speaker 1: five hours. Um, that's it's a long time to be

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Speaker 1: in an MRI machine. Yes, and another just another trivia

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Speaker 1: act for those of you who like to play trivia games.

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Speaker 1: The very first machine was called the Indomitable. Yes. And

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Speaker 1: you can actually see the Indomitable Yes, it's at the Smithsonian. Yes.

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Speaker 1: So I wonder if the Abominable Snowman could be have

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Speaker 1: an m r I in the in the Abdomitable. I

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Speaker 1: am almost certain that the Abominable Snowman has even more

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Speaker 1: junk in the trunk than the median. Probably probably does.

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Speaker 1: I'll ask my sister. She knows him. Okay, yeah, actually, no,

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Speaker 1: you're right, that's true. I'm not making it up. So so, yeah,

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Speaker 1: there there's a very small space in an m r

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Speaker 1: I machine. Um. And do you think we should mention

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Speaker 1: before we get into the technology behind it, what you

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Speaker 1: would use an m r I for sure? Sure? Why

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Speaker 1: don't you Why don't you illuminate? Okay, well, there there

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Speaker 1: are lots of different things that you can use an

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Speaker 1: m r I for. Now, what it does is it

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Speaker 1: basically captures an image of your insides. Um. I was

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Speaker 1: going to say sort of like an X ray, But

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Speaker 1: I don't really like an X ray at all, because

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Speaker 1: X rays are really good for things like bone structure

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Speaker 1: and but damage to bones, whereas m r I s

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Speaker 1: are really good for soft tissue like organs. Yes, and Uh,

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Speaker 1: if you ever have the opportunity to see pictures that

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Speaker 1: have come from an m I, U might be worth

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Speaker 1: looking up online. But um, it's it's really fascinating. You

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Speaker 1: could see a whole lot of detail. Um. And speaking

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Speaker 1: of of detail, I mean I could tell you a

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Speaker 1: little bit about that. I actually had an m r

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Speaker 1: I this year. We'll get into that in a minute.

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Speaker 1: But you can look for things like tumors for different

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Speaker 1: signs of disease, torn ligaments or damaged tendons. Um, just

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Speaker 1: irregularities and organs. Someone might have an enlarged heart or

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Speaker 1: things of that nature. You have damage to blood vessels. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, if you have anything wrong with your abdominal area. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, you could you could look to see if

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Speaker 1: there's something that's uh that's available, and the technology is

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Speaker 1: is amazing to me. The things the report that I

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Speaker 1: got back from the doctor when it was all done,

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Speaker 1: it's going, how did you see as they sent the

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Speaker 1: entire thing? So I saw all the other stuff, the

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Speaker 1: um the person who did it catalog pretty much everything

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Speaker 1: was visible, even things that they weren't looking for. So

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Speaker 1: it was going, that's a little creepy, yeah, but it's amazing.

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Speaker 1: You think the back scatter X ray machines at the

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Speaker 1: airport are are really detail oriented. Well. Also, I found

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Speaker 1: the key to my back door. It was it was,

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Speaker 1: it was inside there all the time, and I wondered

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Speaker 1: what happened to it? Apparently it fell in my burrito. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I was wondering if that was a euphemism. Now, actually,

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Speaker 1: actually we'll get into this. If there had been a key,

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Speaker 1: that would have been extremely bad. All right, Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: let's let's talk a little bit about m ris of

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Speaker 1: why they are important. Besides the fact that they look

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Speaker 1: at your squishy bits as opposed to your skeletal system

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Speaker 1: like all the uh, your lungs and liver and all

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff that they're really good for that. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's a scientific term squishy bits. Yeah, well I'm not

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Speaker 1: I'm no adicition. Um, I don't have my my discinal degree. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The it's it's non invasive, so that means it doesn't

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Speaker 1: there's no there's no incisions that have to be made.

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Speaker 1: And also unlike X rays, it is uh, it's not

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Speaker 1: an ionizing form of radiation. Right now, X rays are uh,

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Speaker 1: that is a form of ionizing radiation, which means that

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Speaker 1: when the X rays hits you, they can create ions,

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Speaker 1: which you know, it's essentially it's stripping electrons away from

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Speaker 1: from atoms and this can cause cells to be damaged.

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Speaker 1: It can cause mutations, which is why you hear about

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Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it's why anyone who works in

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Speaker 1: an X ray laboratory laboratory, I could hear it. I

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Speaker 1: don't know why that has every now and then I oratory.

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Speaker 1: My schedule has me in the laboratory this afternoon. They

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Speaker 1: but anyone who works in one of those they they

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Speaker 1: usually have to be behind like a protective barrier for

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Speaker 1: whenever they're running the machines. It's why when you get

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Speaker 1: an X ray done of your teeth. You may have

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Speaker 1: to wear out like the lead apron because too much

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Speaker 1: exposure to too too many X rays can cause damage. Well,

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Speaker 1: m r I s do not use that kind of radiation.

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Speaker 1: There is radiation that's involved, but it's not that it's

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Speaker 1: not that ionizing radiation. So it's there's no real damage, um,

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Speaker 1: that that could happen on that on that in that way.

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Speaker 1: There are ways to get damaged getting an m r I,

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Speaker 1: and you alluded to one of them earlier. So, um,

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Speaker 1: what exactly is going on here? The m r I.

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Speaker 1: We said that that stands for magnetic resonance imaging. That magnetic,

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Speaker 1: of course, is the really big part of this. There's

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Speaker 1: a an enormous magnet that is um uh generating a

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Speaker 1: very powerful magnetic field. Yes, extremely powerful. In fact, um uh.

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Speaker 1: They measure the field in in tesla, not in gaus,

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Speaker 1: which is typical of measuring magnetic fields, right right, gals

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Speaker 1: is a is a unit that's much smaller than a tesla. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, a tesla is equal to

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Speaker 1: ten thousand cows and uh typical m r I machine. Um.

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Speaker 1: By the way, it's a very excellent article on this website.

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Speaker 1: That you mentioned earlier, right, how stuff works dot com. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: there is a great article on our m R I

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Speaker 1: machines on there. But according to that article, um, we

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Speaker 1: do uh there there is an field of about to

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Speaker 1: tesla going on. So that's twenty thousand gaus if you

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Speaker 1: are inside the machine and um, and it is a

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Speaker 1: long machine. It's long enough to uh you know, stick

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Speaker 1: a whole human in there. Um. But yeah, so it's

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Speaker 1: it's got very very powerful magnets in their most frequently

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Speaker 1: their permanent magnets. Yeah, superconduction magnets. There are some that

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Speaker 1: do use permanent magnets, you're right, but the majority superconduct Now,

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Speaker 1: a superconductor is an interesting thing. They in order to

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Speaker 1: get a it's essentially a electro magnet. But to really

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Speaker 1: reach superconductivity, they have to lower the resistance within the

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Speaker 1: wires that create the magnetic field. Now if you I'm

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Speaker 1: sure you all remember, but an electro magnet is essentially

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Speaker 1: a coil of wire. You run an electric current through

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Speaker 1: this coil of wire and that generates a magnetic field. Well,

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Speaker 1: all wires have a certain amount of resistance. It's dependent

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Speaker 1: upon the material of the wire and the gauge of

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Speaker 1: the wire and resistance just that that that's going to

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Speaker 1: inhibit the strength of the magnetic field. So to lower

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Speaker 1: the resistance, you actually lower the temperature. And with superconductive

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Speaker 1: magnets you do this using liquid helium, which is incredibly cold.

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Speaker 1: This is the same stuff they used to cool the

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Speaker 1: Large Hadron Collider at CERN. That's point four degrees below

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Speaker 1: zero if you're talking fahrenheit, or about to sixty nine

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Speaker 1: point one below zero celsius, or as I call it

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Speaker 1: on my scale, really really really really cold. Yeah, you're

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Speaker 1: approaching absolute zero zero kelvin and um and of course

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Speaker 1: zero kelvin absolute zero. What that means is you've reached

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Speaker 1: a point where there is no molecular movement. So really,

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Speaker 1: when you think about temperature in a way, you're talking

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Speaker 1: about how fast molecules move. That's that's kind of a

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Speaker 1: way of thinking about it, right. Well, so this this way,

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Speaker 1: you're reducing the movement of those molecules as much as possible.

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Speaker 1: You run the electric current through it generates a very

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Speaker 1: powerful magnetic field. Now why do you create this magnetic field? Well,

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Speaker 1: to do to really understand that, you have to understand

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Speaker 1: that the the whole basis of m R I is

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Speaker 1: uh is on the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance. Now,

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Speaker 1: first of all, when you hear the word nuclear, you

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Speaker 1: start to freak out right because you know, yeah, well

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Speaker 1: it's nuclear power plants, nuclear bombs. You think about these

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Speaker 1: things that are potentially really powerful and devastatingly dangerous. But

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Speaker 1: really it just means that it we're dealing with nuclei here, yes,

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Speaker 1: the nucleus of an atom, and we're talking specifically about hydrogen.

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Speaker 1: Hydrogen nucleus is a proton. You've got a proton an

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Speaker 1: electron that's hydrogen, so you're nucleus is just proton. Now.

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Speaker 1: Nuclear magnetic resonance is a spectroscopic technique that gets information

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Speaker 1: about chemical and physical properties of a material at the

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Speaker 1: microscopic level. And it was developed it was actually discovered

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Speaker 1: by Felix Block and Edward Purcell at the same time, independently.

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Speaker 1: In why is it always? It seems like big advances

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Speaker 1: in science are always there are always two people that

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Speaker 1: figured out about the same time. I don't know. It

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Speaker 1: is pretty interesting when you sit there and you think, well,

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Speaker 1: you know what driving forces inspired two people in different

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Speaker 1: parts of the world to study the same thing and

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Speaker 1: come to the same conclusion. Now, what I would argue

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Speaker 1: is that that shows that science is good, because it

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Speaker 1: means that if you follow the scientific method, you will

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Speaker 1: reach the proper conclusion in time. Alright, then, so I

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Speaker 1: figured there was some kind of bond between them. Science

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Speaker 1: as good as the alternative title of this episode of

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Speaker 1: tech stuff. Um. So, at any rate, they both actually

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Speaker 1: were awarded the Nobel Prize in ninety two. Domedian did

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Speaker 1: who invented the m R A machine, did not win

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Speaker 1: the Nobel Prize. But at any rate, you've got this

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Speaker 1: this principle, and the principle essentially essentially states that there's

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Speaker 1: this feature of of atoms called spines nuclear spin. Um.

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Speaker 1: It's a little interesting and a little difficult to explain,

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Speaker 1: but but atoms are spinning in a particular direction all right,

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Speaker 1: independently of other materials. But if you introduce a magnetic

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Speaker 1: field that's strong enough to the to the atoms, their

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Speaker 1: spin will align with that magnetic field. So it's kind

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Speaker 1: of like when you think of iron filings and a magnet.

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Speaker 1: If you have the magnet in a certain way, the

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Speaker 1: iron filings will actually start to align themselves in the

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Speaker 1: in the same direction as the magnetic field around that magnet.

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Speaker 1: So first you create this magnetic field, a powerful magnetic

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Speaker 1: field that's using the superconductor magnet, and you start to

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Speaker 1: align these proton uh well, I'm starty, not just protons,

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Speaker 1: but these hydrogen nuclei in the proper alignment. Then you

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Speaker 1: use a radio frequency that's a tune specifically to those nuclei,

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Speaker 1: and you hit the nuclei with a frequency. When you

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Speaker 1: do that, you excite some of the nuclei to a

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Speaker 1: higher state uh of energy. And then when you stop,

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Speaker 1: when you remove that radio frequency, the nuclear returned to

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Speaker 1: their relaxed state. They go back to what they were

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Speaker 1: doing before, right. And by measuring this different difference, you

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Speaker 1: can you can sort of see you know where the

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Speaker 1: protons are, where the nuclear are, But you have to

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Speaker 1: you have to get a little more specific than that.

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Speaker 1: If you were just using the superconductor magnet and just

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Speaker 1: using radio frequency, you would know that there were protons there,

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Speaker 1: but you wouldn't really have a map, you wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: an image that you could look at. It would just

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Speaker 1: tell you that there were nuclei there. So what you

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Speaker 1: have to do is you have to actually add more

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Speaker 1: magnets to the mix and create a gradiated magnetic field.

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Speaker 1: So this this gradation, this variable magnetic field, gives you

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Speaker 1: more information and you can actually map out what the

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Speaker 1: the inside of something looks like based upon the position

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Speaker 1: of hydrogen uh atoms just through blasting it with radio

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Speaker 1: frequencies and putting this magnetic field around them. It's it's

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Speaker 1: pretty interesting stuff. And it's a little complicated. Um, actually

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Speaker 1: it's a lot complicated. But because we're talking about really

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Speaker 1: we're talking about nuclear physics when we get down to it,

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Speaker 1: and um, of course, when you ever you talk about magnetism,

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Speaker 1: eventually you get to a point where I'm just like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: we're well beyond what I can easily explain. Nonetheless, they

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Speaker 1: really like magnets, and you know what a super cool

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Speaker 1: but um, and they're actually uh, I believe there are

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Speaker 1: actually three gradient magnets in an MR machine. Um, and

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Speaker 1: they're not as powerful as the superconductor magnet, but they

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Speaker 1: don't need to be right. Um, But let's see the

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Speaker 1: U the tunnel. There's basically it's if you think about

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Speaker 1: it, it it kind of looks like a donut on a stand,

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Speaker 1: a very long donut, and you the the hole. In

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Speaker 1: this case, it is called the bore b o r E. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I also get that term when I go to parties,

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Speaker 1: but we won't go there now, or sometimes when our

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Speaker 1: podcast goes long. But what happens when you go to

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Speaker 1: UH to sit in for an m R I uh

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Speaker 1: you are asked to basically leave everything behind. You don't

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Speaker 1: wear your clothes. You have to you know, strip down

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Speaker 1: and wear a hospital gown. They ask you things like,

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Speaker 1: you know, do you have any metal in your body right?

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Speaker 1: Any screws or metal plates or if you have like

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Speaker 1: a pacemaker, anything like that could be um, well, that

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Speaker 1: would definitely be a problem, yes, because what what can

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Speaker 1: happen during the m R I process is depending on

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Speaker 1: the kind of metal that maybe inside, say it's a screw, um, uh,

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Speaker 1: steel screw it would it could heat up and because

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Speaker 1: internal burns, which are bad. Yeah, and you can't have

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Speaker 1: any metal in the room because it's gonna fly right

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Speaker 1: at that MR machine once you turn it on. That

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Speaker 1: would be fun. No, it's not fun. No, I mean

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Speaker 1: that was sarcasm um and it's sadly it is. It

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Speaker 1: has actually contributed well, it's contributed to a few pretty

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Speaker 1: well publicized accidents in in m R I labs um,

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Speaker 1: including I almost did again, Yeah, and you almost spit

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Speaker 1: coffee all over me. Um. So I don't know what

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Speaker 1: do with laboratory aluminium. Yes, aluminium, I think is you're

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Speaker 1: you're pretty safe. It's not magnetics. And I have I

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Speaker 1: have actually some some titanium inside and I was kind

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Speaker 1: of wondering about that. What's your key was made out of? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: yes it is. No, I had, uh yeah, some clips

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Speaker 1: from a previous surgery. You know. It's kind of concerned

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Speaker 1: because I knew they were made of metal and they said, no, no,

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Speaker 1: that's titanium. You're fine. No, I honestly did not know this.

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Speaker 1: But apparently Mr Palette is the bionic man. Well you

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Speaker 1: know that sixty million dollars doesn't buy what it used to.

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Speaker 1: This is this is becoming all that more more and

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Speaker 1: more apparent. Actually was six million, it wasn't sixty adjusting

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Speaker 1: for inflation. That's fair enough. But yeah, so they what

300
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Speaker 1: they do is they have you lie down on this um.

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Speaker 1: It's sort of like a long like you might see

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Speaker 1: a gurney, except it's attached to the machine. You lie

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Speaker 1: down and they there are motors attached to the underside

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Speaker 1: of that and they when you are comfortably lying back

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Speaker 1: on this device, they uh, the motors wheel you in

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Speaker 1: and they don't necessarily have to put your entire body

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Speaker 1: in the machine, which is good for people who are claustrophobic. Right,

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Speaker 1: they don't have to look at your head. It's probably

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Speaker 1: better not to just you can actually go in feat

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Speaker 1: first if if that's the case, I mean, um, and

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Speaker 1: there are there are times where people have been sedated

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Speaker 1: to uh in order to calm down enough to be

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Speaker 1: able to go through an m r I. But that's

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Speaker 1: tricky too because one of the other parts about getting

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Speaker 1: an m r I done is you have to stay

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Speaker 1: very very still. That is the truth, because if you

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Speaker 1: move at all, then you're going to distort the image

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Speaker 1: because you're going to change the position of those those

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Speaker 1: nuclei everything that happens to be inside you. By the way,

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Speaker 1: in case you're wondering, we happen to have a lot

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Speaker 1: of hydrogen in our bodies. Um, it's stored mostly in

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Speaker 1: water and fat. But uh, one figure I read said

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Speaker 1: that about oh of us is hydrogen, so uh, you

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Speaker 1: know it's it's measuring where that is that we can

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Speaker 1: make the the images to to show what's happening. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: when you go in and uh the magnet kicks on

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Speaker 1: and the radio frequency starts to blast you, what's that like? Um? Well,

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Speaker 1: one of the things that I have to say that

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Speaker 1: the technician who administered the m R I that that

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Speaker 1: I had earlier this year was very very patient. Um,

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Speaker 1: and although I'm not claustrophobic, I was a little concerned

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Speaker 1: that I might uh feel a little uncomfortable being in

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Speaker 1: such a tight space. Uh. They did put me all

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Speaker 1: the way inside the bore of the m R I machine. Um.

335
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Speaker 1: But one nice thing that they did, Uh they gave

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Speaker 1: me a set of headphones and uh they had you know,

337
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Speaker 1: gave me a variety of music to choose from, and

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Speaker 1: I picked a station that I thought would be calming.

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Speaker 1: Did you choose the Magnetic Fields Book of Love? No?

340
00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:18,480
Speaker 1: I did not, but that is an excellent a series

341
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Speaker 1: of records. Um. But uh no, that's funny. I'm sorry,

342
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:27,760
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of funny. Um. But that and they

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Speaker 1: put a towel over my eyes, you know, and had

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Speaker 1: me lay back, and uh, they can actually talk to

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Speaker 1: you from the booth so that you know, what are

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Speaker 1: you doing now? You are you feeling okay? Um? You know,

347
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Speaker 1: are you concerned? Um? What they didn't tell me was

348
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:45,760
Speaker 1: it makes a whole lot of noise. And I didn't

349
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Speaker 1: read this article, uh, nor do any other research before

350
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Speaker 1: I went in. Uh so when this sounds, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't hear a loud knocking, so this isn't uh you know,

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Speaker 1: I've heard that some machines there is a loud knocking noise.

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Speaker 1: Now I did not hear that. I heard sounded like

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Speaker 1: a warning class in from a nineteen seventy two science

355
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Speaker 1: fiction movie. And I'm going, well, either the bombing has

356
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Speaker 1: started and they're leaving me here to die, or this

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00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:15,480
Speaker 1: is normal. Yeah, either the m I R I is

358
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Speaker 1: going as planned, or the Klingons have have materialized off

359
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,159
Speaker 1: the starboard bell exactly. I'm not kidding. It was me,

360
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Speaker 1: and I'm going interesting, I assume that this is part

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Speaker 1: of the normal functioning of the machine. And as it

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Speaker 1: turned out, the Klingons left the hospital pretty much, uh

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Speaker 1: you know, untouched. So that's good, that's good. But yeah,

364
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:38,200
Speaker 1: it's it's a little it's a little disconcerting. But I

365
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Speaker 1: didn't really I didn't really feel a lot, now, you

366
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Speaker 1: know they that was up until that was probably the

367
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Speaker 1: two thirds of the way through the m r I.

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Speaker 1: And then they stopped and came in the room and

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Speaker 1: had to move my body back out of the bore

370
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Speaker 1: of the m r I. And I'm sure you probably

371
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Speaker 1: know why that is. We got to the next phase

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Speaker 1: of the m r I process because the m or

373
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Speaker 1: I can only do so much by itself. At one

374
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Speaker 1: point they ask you if you're willing to be injected

375
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Speaker 1: with a die, yes, a contrast die. Yes. The thing

376
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:14,119
Speaker 1: is it's it's from what I understand, it's radioactive and

377
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Speaker 1: can cause some problems. Some people can have an allergic

378
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,399
Speaker 1: reaction to it. That is one of the dangers of

379
00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:22,000
Speaker 1: the m r I is that you can you can

380
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Speaker 1: actually suffer an allergic reaction to the contrast material. Yea,

381
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Speaker 1: they gave me a nice long form to sign saying

382
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Speaker 1: you really won't be angry at us if we kill you, right,

383
00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:37,000
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. It was yes, and they were They explained

384
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Speaker 1: it in great details. So they were very many nice people.

385
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:41,600
Speaker 1: But um, but it's funnier to see it the other way.

386
00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:44,480
Speaker 1: But yeah, and so they injected me with a die,

387
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:48,600
Speaker 1: which felt very weird and uh kind of kind of

388
00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:52,120
Speaker 1: a cold feeling. Actually, yeah, I've I've had I've had

389
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 1: various dyes injected into me, both on purpose and on accident. Hey,

390
00:22:57,600 --> 00:22:59,200
Speaker 1: let's see if we can turn the more in. She's

391
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:04,199
Speaker 1: a weird your college experience. Anyway, Then they put me

392
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Speaker 1: back inside the machine and ran the machine for another

393
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. The whole thing for me only took probably

394
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Speaker 1: about an hour. Yeah, the they tend to be between

395
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Speaker 1: fifteen and forty five minutes, but some can be a

396
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:18,840
Speaker 1: little longer. It all depends on the equipment, the technician,

397
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,359
Speaker 1: and exactly why you need to have the the m

398
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:22,920
Speaker 1: r I done because you know, if it's just one

399
00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:25,080
Speaker 1: where you have to scan one little part of your body,

400
00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:27,439
Speaker 1: then obviously that's not gonna take as long as if

401
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:30,440
Speaker 1: you need, you know, like a full body scan. Um

402
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:33,800
Speaker 1: when when you're being put through the boar, or when

403
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:36,040
Speaker 1: anyone really is being put through the boar, the part

404
00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 1: of the body that needs to be scanned has to

405
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:39,040
Speaker 1: be in the center of it, which is called the

406
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:43,399
Speaker 1: ISO center of the boar um. And like I said

407
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:47,960
Speaker 1: that those radio frequencies start to excite the hydrogen atoms

408
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:52,480
Speaker 1: in your body flipping them making them go to a

409
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:55,359
Speaker 1: higher energy state. And then when what happens is when

410
00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:57,960
Speaker 1: they go to that lower energy state, they actually give

411
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:02,600
Speaker 1: off radio frequencies the atoms do. The nuclei give off

412
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,680
Speaker 1: these radio frequencies, which you use. The m r I

413
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:09,080
Speaker 1: machine picks up those radio frequencies and that's what provides

414
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 1: the information to UH to locate where the nuclei are

415
00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:16,800
Speaker 1: and thus build the picture of what's inside you. It's

416
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:19,560
Speaker 1: actually pretty cool now, UM. Now, a lot of people

417
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:21,800
Speaker 1: kind of freak out because they or some people I'm

418
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:24,239
Speaker 1: sure do, because they hear the words radiation and they

419
00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:28,200
Speaker 1: immediately think of ionizing radiation. But we're talking about radio

420
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:32,359
Speaker 1: frequencies here, not X rays or gamma raise or anything

421
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:34,760
Speaker 1: that would give you the power of super stretching abilities.

422
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 1: So it was really disappointed. Yeah, I gotta admit I

423
00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:42,440
Speaker 1: was a little disappointed to UM. But there are other

424
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:45,639
Speaker 1: things that can happen through an m r I that

425
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 1: can some interesting side effects that are possible. Well, first

426
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:51,639
Speaker 1: of all, not everyone can have an m r I

427
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,440
Speaker 1: because if you have any materials in you that would

428
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:58,080
Speaker 1: caught would interfere, obviously, that would be a bad idea. Um.

429
00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:02,040
Speaker 1: But also beyond that, there's the you know, if you're

430
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:04,960
Speaker 1: too large, you couldn't have an m r I UM.

431
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:08,280
Speaker 1: And the boar is very very narrow. Yeah, it's like

432
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:13,399
Speaker 1: two ft in diameter. So uh but yeah. One of

433
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:16,800
Speaker 1: the other possible side effects I've heard about are called

434
00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:23,000
Speaker 1: magneto phosphenes. I'm impressed but that I was able to

435
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:26,480
Speaker 1: say magneto phosphines. Practiced that for about a minute before you. Yeah,

436
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:28,920
Speaker 1: I just I got to magneto and then I would

437
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:34,919
Speaker 1: say I'll crush you x men. But magneto phosphenes. The

438
00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 1: phosphene kind of gives it away. It's it's it's a

439
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 1: visual phenomena. You get these visual sensations. It's like, um,

440
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,400
Speaker 1: it's like flashes of light, like you're like someone's taking

441
00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:45,880
Speaker 1: photographs of you, which kind of they are, except it's

442
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:49,800
Speaker 1: not really photograph um. But you're getting these flashes of light.

443
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:53,919
Speaker 1: And what's happening is it's it's not entirely understood, but

444
00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: it's it's these induced electrical currents that are occurring inside

445
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 1: your retina when you move through the magnetic field. UM

446
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:07,200
Speaker 1: or that the or a magnetic field is changing around you. UM.

447
00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:10,440
Speaker 1: It's it doesn't happen with everyone, and it's not gonna

448
00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 1: happen on It's not gonna happen every time you get

449
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,280
Speaker 1: an m r I or even if you have experienced

450
00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:17,159
Speaker 1: them before, there's no guarantee that you're going to experience

451
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:19,959
Speaker 1: them again if you have another m r I and Uh,

452
00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:25,280
Speaker 1: they're harmless, but I'm sure that's very disorienting. Apart from these,

453
00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 1: there really aren't that many hazards to having an m

454
00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 1: r I done. Uh. And there are other potential uses

455
00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:33,919
Speaker 1: of m r I s that we're just starting to

456
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:37,320
Speaker 1: kind of develop now, like the the functional m r

457
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,480
Speaker 1: I s, which are really interesting. It's kind of making

458
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,679
Speaker 1: a map of the human brain, and it can be

459
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 1: a real time map. You're actually looking at the images

460
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:50,880
Speaker 1: as someone is being subjected to various stimuli, and then

461
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:53,240
Speaker 1: you look at the patterns that are occurring in the

462
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 1: brain and you start to map functions that way. And

463
00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:01,199
Speaker 1: the way this works is when you get someone to

464
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:05,000
Speaker 1: think about something like think about moving your hand, or

465
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:08,520
Speaker 1: think about the color blue or whatever, you know, whatever

466
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:14,119
Speaker 1: the criteria are. Um oxygen goes to the brain and

467
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:16,680
Speaker 1: the level of oxy as the level of oxygen increases

468
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,879
Speaker 1: in the regions where there's brain activity that actually affects

469
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:24,520
Speaker 1: that magnetic field because oxygen is paramagnetic, and by measuring

470
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:26,639
Speaker 1: the differing levels of oxygen in the brain, you can

471
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:31,200
Speaker 1: kind of see brain activity. Interesting. Yeah, there's it's I mean,

472
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:32,960
Speaker 1: just the idea that you could you could do that,

473
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,639
Speaker 1: I wonder how long. It seems like that would be

474
00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: sort of impractical though, well, because you'd have to I mean,

475
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 1: you can't use you wouldn't. You would be limited in

476
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 1: what you could offer the subject in stimuli because it

477
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:48,440
Speaker 1: had to it would have to fit in the more

478
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: and not interfere with the machines. Involve a lot of

479
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 1: thinking and what you can do. But there's one one potential,

480
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 1: uh use I've heard that's kind of scary and interesting

481
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,159
Speaker 1: at the same time, which is to use an f

482
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 1: m R I as a new and improved lie detector.

483
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,040
Speaker 1: That's true, where you ask the subject questions and you

484
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:11,840
Speaker 1: observe the brain activity and look for attempts to be

485
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 1: subversive or to elude the the question asker, person, interrogator.

486
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 1: That's a good word. We'll use that one. Hey, whatever, man,

487
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:25,760
Speaker 1: I've been up for a really long time, so um, yeah,

488
00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of the the overall statement about m

489
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:32,119
Speaker 1: R eyes and how they work. It's it's really a

490
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,399
Speaker 1: very fascinating subject and if you really want to delve

491
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 1: into the science. Um Dr Joseph P. Hornack h O

492
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:46,160
Speaker 1: r in A k of Rochester Institute of Technology, has

493
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: a hypertext textbook on m R eyes onlines free. You

494
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 1: can read all about everything the science behind MR eyes,

495
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:57,960
Speaker 1: the math behind it, the math behind electron spins and

496
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:00,960
Speaker 1: and nuclei spins. It's really fast, sinating reading and it

497
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,320
Speaker 1: goes into way more detail and um you may need

498
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,960
Speaker 1: most of the most of the text is pretty understandable

499
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 1: to someone who's got, you know, a good grounding in

500
00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 1: math and science, but some of it's going to go

501
00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 1: beyond that. So you know, if you are interested in

502
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 1: this sort of thing, I do recommend it, and also

503
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:20,040
Speaker 1: our article if you want to have kind of the

504
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 1: general overview, and you know, we dive into the science,

505
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 1: but we don't get so far down that you need

506
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:27,120
Speaker 1: a degree in science or mathematics in order to understand it.

507
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 1: Our article at how stuff words dot com is also great,

508
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: So I do recommend that. So that wraps up this

509
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:35,640
Speaker 1: discussion on m r I s if you have any

510
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:38,720
Speaker 1: questions or suggestions for topics. We do plan on hitting

511
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: some of these other medical topics in the future, so

512
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:44,360
Speaker 1: keep an ear out for those. Maybe we'll even have

513
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 1: another like we've got our movie making series or medical

514
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 1: series focus on series denystifying series. We could be called

515
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 1: this demystifying the m R. I. I guess, but if

516
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:56,000
Speaker 1: you have any suggestions for similar topics, let us know.

517
00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 1: You can let's know on Twitter and Facebook are handled.

518
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:01,960
Speaker 1: There is text stuff h s W or you can

519
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:05,000
Speaker 1: email us and that address is tech stuff At how

520
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:06,880
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com, Chris and I will talk to

521
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:12,440
Speaker 1: you again really soon for moral this and thousands of

522
00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:14,920
Speaker 1: other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com. To

523
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 1: learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon

524
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,200
Speaker 1: in the upper right corner of our homepage. The how

525
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.

526
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

527
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:33,960
Speaker 1: It's ready, are you