Is biomedical nuclear magnetic resonance limited by a revisitable paradigm in physics?
The history of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) can be divided generally into two phases: before the Second World War, molecular beam methods made it possible to detect the whole set of spins. However, these methods were destructive for the sample and had a very low precision. The publications of F. Bloch and E. Purcell in 1946 opened up a second phase for NMR with the study of condensed matter, but at the expense of an enormous loss in theoretical sensitivity. During more than half a century, the method of Bloch and Purcell, based on inductive detection of the NMR signal, has allowed many developments in biomedicine. But, curiously, this severely constraining limitation on sensitivity has not been called into question during this half-century, as if the pioneers of the pre-war period had been forgotten.
de Certaines
J D
JD
Imagerie Fonctionnelle et Vectorisation en Cancérologie, CRLC Eugène Marquis and IFR 140 GFAS, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Rennes 1, France. Jacques.de-certaines@univ-rennes1.fr
D000818:Animals; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000639:trends; D020811:Biomedical Technology / Q000266:history / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular / Q000266:history / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D009686:Nuclear Physics / Q000266:history / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods