If you think that all X-ray images can do is show you a picture of your skeleton, think again.
Scientists from Mars Bioimaging at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand have developed new medical imaging technology which allows them to take pictures of the internal tissues of living beings (including humans), and show the different components of them in different colours.
Check out the excellent original video by Tom Scott above to show how the technology works.
Essentially, X-rays can come in several wavelengths (shorter to longer) which penetrate differently through different materials.
This would mean that in your body, different wavelengths of Xrays would interact with bones, soft tissue, muscles, tendons and other biological structures differently.
Using this information, you could pass several wavelengths of X-Rays through a body and use the different exposures at the other side to determine what tissue they passed through, to create a 3D image where you can use the different spectrums of light to represent different colours.
The imaging technology originally was developed at CERN to help improve the imaging of particle collisions for the Large Hadron Collider.
Who knows if, within a few years, you’ll get a 3D image of what’s happening inside your own body?
Nick Skillicorn
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