Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an important tool in the medical world because it can detect the presence of tumors in the human body. Since it was created in 1977, it is the third most useful tool for diagnosis. But one of the issues with MRI is that it doesn't have a high enough resolution to detect small objects. Tumors that are too small for example can only be detected after they have grown.
Scientists from Duke University's Center for In Vivo Microscopy, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh and Indiana University have succeeded in developing a new MRI technique that increases image sharpness up to 64 million times compared to now. With higher resolution images, scientists can see changes in the brain with age to understand diseases like Alzheimer's
It can easily scan images as small as 5 microns. In the tests performed, the blood flow system in the brain of a rat was successfully scanned clearly. Something that is impossible to do using normal MRI technology.
To achieve this high level of detail, an MRI with a 9.4-Tesla magnet is used which is up to 6 times more powerful than current MRI machines. The coil on the machine is also 100 times stronger and it also requires a computer that has the processing power of 800 laptops to be used.