104: Inside Job

This time we focus on how nuclear magnetic resonance evolved into a way to peer inside a living creature, that is, magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. We start with early researchers from the 1950s and 1960s, Jay Singer, Erik Odeblad, and Raymond Damadian. Damadian actually patented a primitive method of MRI, but it didn't catch on. We then hear about Paul Lauterbur's work, then a race between Peter Mansfield and Ray Damadian to create the first live human image and full-body scan in the 1970s. The 1980s and 1990s saw the development of "contrast agents", mostly gadolinium compounds, to improve the image.

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