Nobel Prize in Medicine for two physicists

2003/10/06 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Medikuntza
• Sariak

As reported on the website of the Nobel Foundation, they will be awarded for "making discoveries related to the technique of magnetic resonance representation". In short, by opening the way to apply nuclear magnetic resonance that physicists and chemists use in medicine.

This technique is used to explore the internal organs of the body and is part of the set of non-invasive techniques, which means that it serves to prepare an operation before opening the patient's body. These non-invasive techniques are widespread in modern medicine, since they empower the doctor to observe the organs and with this faculty can decide whether or not to undergo surgery. In addition, you can know in advance the shortest way to get to the point of the disease when cutting. In addition, this technique is used to diagnose different neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Adapted resonance

This capability of internal body exploration is provided by various techniques, but magnetic resonance imaging is one of the most common. Paul C. American Lauterbur developed the two-dimensional imaging system by manipulating the magnetic field, while English Sir Peter Mansfield accelerated and improved this rendering technique by developing, among other things, mathematical resources for data processing.

Today it is a conventional diagnostic technique in medicine, and perhaps that is why it seems curious that the award is granted to two physicists, but in origin nuclear magnetic resonance is a technique of analysis of atoms and molecules, from which it became a resource for use in hospitals.