Start here
The Invention of the Medical Imaging Machine: A Diagnostic Breakthrough
A plain-language overview of how X-ray, ultrasound, CT, MRI and PET each gave medicine a new way to see inside the living body without surgery.
Medicine and the Body
Medical Imaging
Seeing inside the body with scans.
The Development of the First 3D Scanner for Medical Imaging: A Diagnostic Marvel
How medical imaging moved from flat shadows to cross-sectional slices and 3D reconstruction, and why the computing power behind it mattered so much.
The Development of the First Medical Imaging Technology: A Diagnostic Marvel
What counts as the first medical imaging technology? A look at how X-ray radiography began in 1895 and branched into later diagnostic methods.
The Forgotten History of the First Medical Imaging Technology for Cancer Diagnosis: A Diagnostic Marvel
A history of how imaging came to be used to spot tumors, from early radiographs to mammography, CT and PET. Historical overview only, not medical advice.
The Forgotten Story of the First Medical Imaging Technology: A Diagnostic Marvel
A look at lesser-known contributors and abandoned methods in medical imaging history, from early X-ray pioneers to discarded contrast agents and air studies.
The Invention of the Medical Imaging Machine CT: A Diagnostic Breakthrough
The story of computed tomography in the early 1970s: Godfrey Hounsfield at EMI, Allan Cormack's theory, and the first brain scanners.
The Invention of the Medical Imaging Machine MRI: A Diagnostic Breakthrough
How nuclear magnetic resonance research became the MRI scanner, and why credit among Lauterbur, Mansfield, Damadian and others is still disputed.
The Invention of the Medical Imaging Machine PET: A Diagnostic Breakthrough
How radioactive tracers and coincidence detection of gamma rays led to the first PET scanners in the 1970s, and what made the technique different.
The Invention of the Medical Imaging Machine Ultrasound: A Diagnostic Breakthrough
How sonar-derived ultrasound moved into medicine, from 1940s experiments to the obstetric scanning pioneered in Glasgow in the 1950s.
Related topics
More in medicine and the body
Prosthetic Limbs Artificial arms, hands, legs and feet through the centuries. Sight and Hearing Aids Bionic eyes and ears, implants and the microscope. Exoskeletons and Artificial Tissue Wearable assistive frames, soft robotics, artificial muscle and skin. Microscopy How lenses opened the microscopic world and changed medicine. X-Rays Discovery and early use of X-ray machines. Heart Devices and Implants Pacemakers, defibrillators, valves and artificial hearts. Diabetes Care Technology Insulin, pumps and the artificial pancreas. Vaccines and Genetics Polio vaccine, DNA and gene editing. Medical Instruments Everyday tools of examination and treatment, told as history.