The Beatles' greatest gift to humanity is... CT Scans

Here’s the backstory: in the 1960s, a middle-aged engineer named Godfrey Hounsfield was working at Electrical & Musical Instrument Ltd., EMI for short, where he began as a radar researcher in 1951.

The company, was a typical industrial scientific company at the time, working on military technology and the burgeoning field of electronics. Hounsfield was a skilled but unexceptional scientist, leading a team that built the first all-transistor computer in 1958.
Through its work in radar, the company began working in broadcasting equipment, which complimented its ownership of several recording studios in London. Specifically, at Abbey Road. In the 50s, the company began releasing its first records.

Then, in 1962, on the recommendation of EMI recording engineer George Martin, the company signed the Beatles to a recording contract. That was even before the Beatles became THE Beatles.
That was the bang - over the next decade (and for years thereafter) the company earned millions of dollars from the fab four. So much money, the company almost didn’t know what to do with it.

EMI gave Hounsfield the freedom to pursue independent research. Hounsfield’s breakthrough was combining his work with computers together with an interest in X-rays. X-rays were still pretty much used to image bodies in two dimensions from a fixed position.

Hounsfield’s idea was to measure in three dimensions, by scanning an object - most dramatically, a human head - from many directions. The result was a cross-sectional, interior image that he called computed tomography, or CT.

Having sold 200 million of the Fab Four’s singles, (at seven inches, almost enough vinyl to stretch the length of the equator) the Beatles’ record company, EMI, was able to fund Hounsfield to do his research and the scanner was ready be used in hospitals in the 1970’s. An invention for which, he shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for medicine.

Dr. R. W. Donnell, hospitalist in Northwest Arkansas mentions: "When I began residency in St. Louis in 1975 there were only two CT scanners, then known as EMI scanners, in the city"

Today…cone beam technology is being used by implant dentist for the diagnosis of dental diseases and in particular dental implant placement. By being able to take virtual “slices” thru your bone, as an example, we are able to determine the 3d architecture of your bone. We can locate the position and extent of your maxillary sinus as well as the inferior alveolar nerve as an example. These two structures are critical in determining implant placement. While this technology does not eliminate potential difficulties with dental implants… it can reduce the associated the risks.
Moreover, the Beatles gave us a nice story to tell patients during a stressful CT scan moment.

References:
- Dr. R.W. Donnell, http://doctorrw.blogspot.com
- Matt Rosoff www.news.cnet.com
- The Cottonwood Dental Group blog, http://www.cottonwooddentalgroup.com
- Thomas Goetz, http://thedecisiontree.com/blog
- http://www.business-opportunities.biz