12 - Most Powerful MRI Has Stronger Magnet Than the LHC’s

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Most Powerful MRI Has Stronger Magnet Than the LHC’s
A. Madrigal, "Most Powerful MRI Has Stronger Magnet Than the LHC’s" Wired Science, wired.com/wiredscience, September 16, 2009. [Online]. Available: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/bigmri/. [Accessed: March 20, 2010].

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology is an incredible way to image the inner-workings of humans and animals alike. An MRI machine that emits a magnetic field with near-perfect uniformity and homogeneity is a good MRI. An MRI machine that emits a strong uniform and homogenous field is an even better MRI. The MRI machine located at the University of Illinois in Chicago emits a uniform and homogenous field with a strength of 9.4 T (although it's more likely the machine emits a field of 9.4 T with some number of zeros appended to that number).

To put things in perspective, Earth's magnetic core emits a magnetic field with a strength of about 50 microtesla, or about 200,000 times less than that of U of I's MRI. If you've ever had an MRI screening, it's likely you were placed in a magnetic field of either 1.5 or 3 T.

Only four 9.4 T machines exist right now. The massive field could be used to predict the risk of neurological disease such as Alzheimer's Disease or Multiple Sclerosis long before even symptoms show up.

Granted, 9.4 T is a massive field and could easily yank a ferromagnetic object right out of the hands of the careless individual even at a great distance. However, it is nowhere near the current record for a manmade magnetic field with a field strength of 45 T, soon to be overcome by a project at the National High Mangetic Field Laboratory in Florida, where the final touches are being put on a 100 T magnet.