Most powerful MRI machine

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the most powerful medical and non-invasive inspection techniques used today. A French-German team have collaborated to develop an MRI system capable of an MRI system with a magnetic-field strength of 11.7 Tesla (compared to the Earth’s 25 to 65 microTeslas). To be installed at France’s Neurospin Centre in 2016, the Iseult/INUMAC ("Imaging of Neuro disease Using high-field MR and Contrastophores") MRI machine is a full-body scanner but will provide highly detailed imaging of the human brain to help diagnose brain conditions. Conventional MRIs use three Tesla or seven Tesla magnetic fields, but this device has a field powerful enough to lift a weight of 60 tonnes (around five London buses). The higher the magnetic field intensity, the higher the resolution of the scanner, so conventional MRIs image around a 1-mm cube volume. The new scanner images cubes only 0.1 mm on each side, with a time resolution (time to take one picture) of 0.1 seconds – compared to 1 second for conventional MRIs.

The machine development started in 2006, with tests ongoing. It is likely to be commercially priced at €200 million (US$270 million; £1.71 million).