Dr Peter Wothers - Using Xenon to Image Living Lungs

Publicado 2012-12-23
For the final film in our advent series, the 2012 Christmas Lecturer, Dr Peter Wothers, travels to the Sheffield University MRI Unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital to explore how the strange properties of his favourite chemical element are being used to image living lungs.

In the build up to this year's Christmas Lectures, we've published a new video for every day of advent revealing the elements that really excite and inspire people.

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Todos los comentarios (15)
  • Although Xenon is an asphyxiant it does interestingly have anaesthetic properties which is due to the fact that it's an NMDA receptor antagonist. It is therefore a dissociative anaesthesia.
  • They'll appear on the Ri Channel (google: Ri Channel) website to stream in about a weeks time! If you follow our twitter (@ri_science) we'll announce when they're up!
  • @tomcollproductions
    Wow this is a good one! Nothing better than testing the element on the lecturer!
  • @MLiljeroth
    The signal is generated from the movement of nuclear spins caused by the application of an RF pulse. Once Xenon dissolves in the blood it will require an RF pulse of a different frequency. You'd have to switch resonance frequencies to see xenon dissolved in blood (unless you've got an insanely large bandwidth)
  • @jhoughjr1
    Why the lead apron over the imaging area?
  • @AlexanderH007
    You should have used radioactive Xenon which is what they use in Nuclear Medicine Lung Ventilation studies.
  • @WilbertKiemeneij
    Can anyone tell me when the lectures are going to be available online? I couldn't watch them here in the Netherlands, and I'm really curious...
  • @didaloca
    If Xenon can cross into the bloodstream (as he said before, it is a slight anesthetic) , then why can't you see any blood vessels? I'm assuming that not enough transfers to see it.
  • @GregSamsa999
    I´m sorry, you just made a mistake of Noble magnitude.
  • @MPOTW
    Sheffield University deliberatly intoxicating Peter Wothers so Cambridge's Chemistry department is hindered
  • @EDUARDO12348
    Ok I did it, how does Xenon leave the body? lol seriously
  • @cesarfiladelfo
    Probably isn't because of xenon, but the lack of oxygen to the brain causes the nervous system effect. And thinking about gases in the bloodstream, they must be dissolved, and this could change the physicochemical properties that are needed for the signaling on the MRI-scan.
  • @walterdennisclark
    That is the least scientific video I have ever seen. What is hyper polarized? How does MRI work? Why does Xe glow? Why does hydrogen glow when Xe doesn't Why is Xe his favorite? Because it is used in MRI. That's a pretty dumb reason. It doesn't take much to be a scientist in England I guess.