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How The Beatles Helped Fund the CT Scan

Computerized Tomography (CT) is one of the most important developments in diagnostic imaging over the past 50 years. It creates virtual slices that allow doctors to see inside the human body without having to make an incision. Unlike x-ray, CT is able to visualize soft tissues—more importantly, bleeding within those soft tissues. This is critical in trauma cases because CT scans can provide an incredible amount of diagnostic information in an extremely short amount of time. Every second counts when someone’s life is on the line.

But enough with the radiology lesson! Today in my Imaging class I learned a really interesting fact about the history of CT machines: The Beatles actually contributed to its creation. Now The Beatles weren’t actually moonlighting as physicists or engineers, but their crazy success allowed Godfrey Hounsfield to invent the CT scanner.

Fun fact!

Hounsfield was a researcher at Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI). You might remember EMI as the record label that signed The Beatles, but in the 1950’s it was actually an industrial research company. Long story short, when the band was signed to the label in 1962, Hounsfield was given permission to conduct independent research with the funding from The Beatles’ insane success. With that funding, he was able to invent the CT scanner, which EMI released in 1972.

The Beatles CT Scan

What’s even cooler is that Lurie Children’s Hospital here in Chicago has a “Yellow Submarine” themed CT scanner in honor of The Beatles’ contribution. It’s just one of the many fun-themed rooms at the hospital, but it’s certainly a memorable one!

So there you have it. Feel free to share this fun fact with the Beatles fans in your life!

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My NASA Social: OSIRIS-REx & Bennu the Asteroid

I feel terrible that I haven’t been writing here because I’ve been involved in some really cool things that deserve to be mentioned. School and work have kept my brain so busy that I just haven’t had the energy to write for me. But I’m hoping to change that!

During my spring break, I attended a NASA Social to learn about the first-ever NASA mission to travel to an asteroid, retrieve a sample, and bring the sample back to Earth.

During the one-day event, I got to see the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at Lockheed Martin. In addition to that, I got to speak with engineers about the inspiration behind and challenges facing OSIRIS-REx, took a tour of the mission operations center, and got an up close look at Lockheed’s massive asteroid wall.

Why is this mission such a big deal?

Asteroids are composed of leftover debris from the solar system formation. This can teach us about the history of our planets, as well as answer the question: Where did we come from?

OSIRIS-REx will launch in 2016, meet the asteroid in 2018, depart the asteroid in 2021, and return home with samples in 2023. What makes this such an incredible mission is that the spacecraft will only make contact with the asteroid for about five seconds while it gets its samples!

What is OSIRIS-REx?

OSIRIS-REx, or Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, is the first NASA mission to bring samples from an asteroid back to Earth.

It will launch this Fall, and orbit the sun for a year until finally using Earth’s gravitational field to move it long its path to Bennu. It will spend another year mapping potential sample sites on the asteroid.

OSIRIS-REx TAGSAM

A picture of the sample capsule and TAGSAM.

A sampling arm, called TAGSAM, will release a burst of nitrogen gas which will cause rocks and soil to be stirred up and captured by the samples head. After this brief encounter with Bennu’s surface, the sample capsule will separate from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and return to Earth. NASA hopes to collect between 60 and 2000 grams of asteroid material.

Where is OSIRIS-REx going?

Meet Bennu.

Bennu asteroid facts

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will travel to the asteroid Bennu. Scientists chose Bennu because of its composition, size, and proximity to our planet. It’s considered a rare or “primitive” asteroid, meaning that it hasn’t changed significantly since it formed nearly 4.5 billion years ago. Because of this, scientists hope to find organic molecules on Bennu like those that led to the origin of life on Earth.

Admittedly I knew nothing about OSIRIS-REx when I applied for the NASA Social. After attending the Orbital ATK rocket launch (which was sadly scrubbed) in December, I jumped at the chance to attend another event during my break from school. I would have gone to any one of them, but I’m so glad this was the one I ended up at. Learning about this mission and touring Lockheed Martin was such an incredible experience.

And the other attendees made this social one to remember. Everyone was so interesting and I loved hearing about what got them interested in science and space exploration. I really hope to see some of them at the OSIRIS-REx launch in September!

OSIRIS-REx Scale

If you’re interested in attending an event like this, check out the list of upcoming NASA Socials and apply.

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How Radiography Students Decorate for Christmas

radiography christmas tree

Our school participated in a Christmas tree decorating contest earlier this month.

A classmate had a brilliant idea for our tree’s theme: bones! We took bones from a skeleton and turned them into ornaments. One of our clinical instructors cut out x-rays, which are a bit difficult to see in this picture, but trust me they’re awesome. And who needs a star when you have a skull?

Needless to say, we won the contest 🙂

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Fluorescent Wound Dressing Could Reduce Post-Op Infections

Right now we’re learning about infection control at school. Since I spent 40 hours in a hospital each week, I’m trying to absorb every bit of information possible. It’s actually quite fascinating, and I regret never taking microbiology because I think I’d love it.

Anyway, it was perfect timing that an article about early infection detection popped up in my Facebook News Feed today. It appears that scientists have created a prototype wound dressing that’s able to detect the presence of bacteria at a much earlier stage of infection.

wound dressing Photo credit: Intelligent hydrogel wound dressing by University of Bath, via American Chemical Society

The dressing is triggered by a biofilm, a substance created by colonizing bacteria. It’s made up of DNA, proteins, and complex sugars. If detected, the dressing will react with it and turn a bright fluorescent color.

Infection is the most likely reason people wind up back in the hospital following surgery. A wound dressing like this one could certainly help to reduce the number of post-op infections. In testing, the dressing was able to detect the presence of bacteria within four hours from the initial invasion.

You can read more about the wound dressing on IFL Science, or dive into the research in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

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Space, School, and Swallow Tests

Whoa. It’s been a while, huh? I thought that I’d have more time to write over the summer, but I ended up playing video games and making a third trip back to the Kennedy Space Center. Remind me to start writing more about space. Maybe this blog will have a dual focus: anatomy AND cosmology!

School is currently underway, and it’s more intense than I anticipated, but that’s okay because I appreciate a good challenge. We’re only three weeks in and I feel like I’ve already learned a lot. I’ve even seen some really cool procedures during my clinical days—right now I spend three days in the classroom and two days in the radiology department.

On my first day of clinicals, I watched a swallow test. It was a fluoroscopy exam, which means that the x-ray was taken in real-time so I could see what the structures of the mouth and throat looked like in real-time. Not a bad way to start off the semester! I found this video of a swallow test on YouTube in case you’re curious.

Since then I’ve had the privilege of observing radiation therapy, CT, and a special procedures case in which a balloon was inserted into the vein of a patient’s arm. All of this is in addition to general radiography (x-rays). By mid-October I should be taking my first chest ray! Also, I’m really looking forward to checking out MRI and my eventual rotation through surgery.

As for classes, I’m really digging radiation protection because it’s very science based. It lightly touches on the physics behind it all, and I can’t wait until we dive in completely in our upcoming physics class. I wish that I were enjoying my anatomy class more. This semester, we’re devoting an entire class to the skeletal system and its anatomy/physiology. It’s off to a slow start, so hopefully I’ll reignite my interest in the coming weeks.

The only downside is that I’m having a difficult time managing my time. It’s hard to balance my school workload with that of my job. Sometimes I feel like I’m barely keeping my head above water. I need a better system, but I’m working on it. Speaking of, I should probably get back to studying!