Tell-tale magnetism of heart-throbs

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was discovered independently in 1948 by two scientists, Professor Bloch and Pro- fessor Purcell, both of whom were working in the USA. They received a joint Nobel Prize for their work. Since then, NMR has been used routinely as an analytical instrument in chemistry. It was a logical extension of NMR to apply it to studying biochemistry in the living body. Dr Radda, at Oxford University, has been studying this appli- cation for a decade; Dr Mansfield, at Nottingham University, was probably the first to produce a human image, in 1976. Magnetic resonance has the greatest potential of any non-invasive tech- nique that has been de- signed or even envisaged so far. It has been developed mainly as an imaging device to pro- duce pictures of hitherto inaccessible parts of the body in health and disease. While it is an immensely powerful diagnostic instru- ment, it has even greater potential in preventive medicine because it is safe, painless and can be used...