Ever had an NMRI? (No, that’s not a typo)

“MRI” used to be called “NMRI,” and it’s based off an analytical technique chemists use every day

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is so commonplace today that if you haven’t had one by now, you probably live off the grid and have other priorities that don’t involve reading this article. It is a powerful diagnostic imaging technique, which is a fancy way of saying it takes detailed pictures of your insides. MRI is different in many ways than x-ray/CT; most notably, MRI is very useful for looking at soft tissue. The science behind why is exactly what I want to talk about.

You may be wondering, “how does an organic chemist know how a medical imaging machine works?” Well, there’s an analytical instrument in chemistry colloquially called “an NMR” (I say colloquially called “an NMR” because “NMR” is actually the technique, not the name of the instrument, but it’s just how the name has evolved over time) that shares about 98.6014% (repeating, of course) of its DNA with an MRI. In fact, the science behind the two instruments is the same, the difference lies in how the output data is processed. NMR stands for nuclear magnetic resonance, and MRI used to be called NMRI, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. Apparently (I have no idea if this is true), patients didn’t like the word “nuclear,” so medical professionals dropped the “nuclear” and kept the rest. The technology did appear during the cold war, so perhaps there’s a shred of truth there.