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On the MRI thing,
Kris wrote:
> He said the whole bit about absolutely no
metal objects being in the room is nonesense....maybe that was for older
machines? Not sure. It depends on the type of metal and the distance
from the machine.
Hmmm. Seems to depend on who you talk to. I have a
(guitar) student who works with MRI at Stony Brook University Hospital here on
Long Island, and he says that much of it has to do with the size of the magnet
involved. The magnets are measured in Teslas, where one Tesla = 10,000
Gauss.
Low-Field MRI= Under .2 Tesla (2,000 Gauss)
Mid-Field MRI= .2 to 0.6 Tesla (2,000 Gauss
to 6,000 Gauss)
High-Field MRI= 1.0 to 1.5 Tesla (10,000 Gauss to
15,000 Gauss)
...and according to him, there are VERY high-field
MRIs with up to 9 Teslas. There is one that strong in New York City. He often
works with one that's 7 Teslas,. and he confirmed all the wacky stories we've
been trading about the extreme magnetic properties of these machines. IV stands
rolling across the floor and slamming into the units, tattoos becoming hot, etc.
etc. The most intriguing thing was that workers are only allowed to be near the
7 Tesla machine for 1/2 hour at a time because they get dizzy, apparently from
trace elements in the body becoming magnetized.
By the way, let's give it up for ol' Nikola Tesla,
who did some of his wacky electricity-through-the-air experiments just a few
miles from my home here on Lawn Guyland. Didja know Tesla invented radio (but
didn't patent it because he wanted to transmit stronger energy), fluorescent
lights, AC current, the alternating phase motor, and of course the Tesla coil
(found in virtually all radios and TVs)? Tesla got a bum rap, however, because
he never got the electricity-through-the-air thing happening, and later on he
started fantasizing publicly about "death rays" (lasers) and the possibility of
life on Mars, and probably because of his Eastern European origins, as opposed
to Thomas Edison who was Mister All-American and more of a public relations
manipulator than Nikki.
dB
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