American Paul Lauterbur and Briton Sir Peter Mansfield won this year's Nobel Prize for medicine yesterday for discoveries leading to a technique that reveals images of the body's inner organs.
Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, has become a routine method for medical diagnosis and treatment. It is used to examine almost all organs without need for surgery, but is especially valuable for detailed examination of the brain and spinal cord.
Lauterbur, 74, discovered the possibility of creating a two-dimensional picture by producing variations in a magnetic field. Lauterbur is at the Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Urbana.
Mansfield, 70, showed how the signals the body emits in response to the magnetic field could be mathematically analysed, which made it possible to develop a useful imaging technique. Mansfield also showed how extremely fast imaging could be achievable. This became technically possible within medicine a decade later.
Mansfield is at the University of Nottingham in Britain.
MRI images "have an enormous impact on healthcare in the developed part of the world today," said Dr. Hans Ringertz, a Swedish specialist in diagnostic radiology.
Worldwide, more than 60 million investigations with MRI are performed each year. MRI represents "a breakthrough in medical diagnostics and research," the Assembly said.
Essentially, MRI turns hydrogen atoms in the body's tissues into tiny radio transmitters.
Hydrogen atoms are plentiful, because they're found in water molecules, which are very widespread in the body.
By tracking where those atoms are, an MRI machine can build up a picture of internal organs. It's a little like flying over a city at night and discerning its outlines by noticing where the lights are.
The prize includes a check for 10 million kronor, or US$1.3 million, and bestows a deeper sense of academic and medical integrity upon the winners.
Nobel Assembly Secretary Hans Joernvall said he called Lauterbur at his home in Urbana.
"He was very difficult to wake up, so I didn't get that much discussion, but he realized it and above all his wife realized it," he said.
There are no set guidelines for deciding who wins. Alfred Nobel, who endowed the awards that bear his name, simply said the winner "shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine."
The assembly, which selects the medicine prize winner, invites nominations from previous recipients, professors of medicine and other professionals worldwide before whittling down its choices in the fall.
The award for medicine opens a week of Nobel Prizes that culminates on Friday with the prestigious peace prize, the only one revealed in Oslo, Norway.
The physics award will be announced in the Swedish capital today and the chemistry and economics awards tomorrow.
South African writer J.M. Coet-zee was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature on Thursday.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not