brief pulse of radio-frequency (RF)
energy, which makes the protons spin
perpendicular to the pulse. When
the protons release that energy and
return to normal, sensors measure the
same and turn them into images. Un-
derstandably, billions and billions of
spins are needed to gather adequate
data for diagnostics.
To scale down their MRI device,
the researchers put all these MRI
capabilities into a scanning tunnel-
ling microscope with a sharp metal
tip. The two atoms (iron and tita-
nium) studied for this project were
highly magnetic and distinctly visible
through the microscope. The team
then used the microscope’s tip as an
MRI scanner and 3D-mapped the
image at high resolution.
This extreme miniaturisation of
the MRI process is a breakthrough as
it enables the study of a single atom
with great precision, records the sig-
nature structure of the material andalso manages to differentiate between
two atoms made of different stuff but
lying next to each other. The research-
ers think this new technique could
lead to the development of new drugs,
new materials and better quantum
computing systems. “We can now see
something that we couldn’t see be-
fore,” IBM scientist Christopher Lutz
told The New York Times. “So our
imagination can go to a whole bunch
of new ideas that we can test out with
this technology.”August 11I 2019 I BUSINESS TODAYI 121OR YEARS NOW, we
have come across bulky
MRI (magnetic resonance
imaging) machines, those
enormous and somewhat
intimidating chunks of
infrastructure which would
often make us panicky. Still
astonishing is their ability to capture
detailed images of internal organs
and soft tissues – something that
X-rays and CT scans cannot do – to
help with diagnosis. There is just
one glitch. The machines have not
shed their bulk even in this age of
nanotechnology; neither do they fit
in an ambulance. But efforts are on to
miniaturise them as portability is cru-
cial to widen their reach and enhance
their functionality.
Over the past few years, some re-
duction in the size of MRI machines
has been achieved to make it a point-
of-care diagnostic tool. One such
effort resulted in WristView wherein
a patient’s wrist can be scanned by
inserting her arm in a cylindrical
aperture. But it is still on the large
side and cannot be worn on the wrist.
A year ago, in what was considered a
major breakthrough, the Tata Trusts
Foundation developed a scaled-down
system, but it still needed a truck to
be moved around.
Now, a team of researchers at
Seoul’s Center for Quantum Nanosci-
ence (under the Institute for Basic
Sciences at Ewha Womans Univer-
sity) has joined hands with scientists
at the IBM Almaden Research Center
in San Jose, California, and developed
the world’s smallest MRI machine,
according to a paper published in the
journal Nature Physics. What’s more,
the miniaturised MRI machine can
capture the image of something as
minuscule as a single atom. Let us
take a look at how it is done.
A traditional MRI machine cre-
ates a strong magnetic field around
the human body. This interferes with
the fundamental magnets in our body- namely, the spinning electrons and
protons lying in the nucleus of every
atom of each body cell. The energy
from the MRI-generated spinning/
oscillating magnetic field creates a
IMAGINE HOW GOOD it
will feel if your smartphone
or laptop can be charged
over the air. Redmond-
based Ossia has just
received an FCC certifica-
tion for this kind of wireless
tech, as per The Next Web.
Its wireless tech,
called Cota, uses radio
frequencies to deliver
power across a short
distance. But right now,
it is only available for
industrial use. “Wireless
charging pads are not the
ultimate innovation,” says
the company’s website.
“When power is available
everywhere, the question
is no longer how quickly
you can charge your
device, but rather, what
is possible when your
device does not need to
be charged at all?”
Cota will use a trans-
mitter placed indoors and
receivers placed in the
gadgets that need power- it could include IoT sen-
sors as well. Ossia says its
Cota technology will soon
power devices at any dis-
tance, even when they are
in motion and not neces-
sarily within the line of
sight. Also, it will be able
to charge multiple devic-
es, just like Bluetooth or
Wi-Fi does. The hard-
ware will be in sync with
a cloud-based service,
which is how the delivery
of power to devices will be
controlled.
Power Up Via
RADIO WAVES
Wireless TechTO SCALE DOWN
THEIR MRI DEVICE
AND ENABLE
NANOSCALE
IMAGING,
RESEARCHERS
HAVE PUT ALL
MRI CAPABILITIES
INTO A SCANNING
TUNNELLING
MICROSCOPE WITH
A SHARP METAL TIPF