IBM's nanoscale MRI breakthrough

by Stephen Withers

Monday, 23 April 2007

Researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center have demonstrated 2D magnetic resonance imaging of nanoscale objects as small as 90nm.

Previously, the most specialised MRI instruments were limited to around 3000nm.

"Our ultimate goal is to perform three-dimensional imaging of complex structures such as molecules with atomic resolution," said Dan Rugar, manager, nanoscale studies, IBM Research. "This would allow scientists to study the atomic structures of molecules - such as proteins - which would represent a huge breakthrough in structural molecular biology."

The technology is expected to have applications in the design of drugs and integrated circuits.

It's not the first breakthrough the company has achieved in nanoscale imaging. IBM researchers Gerd Binning and Heinrich Rohrer won the 1986 Nobel Prize for physics for inventing the scanning tunnelling microscope capable of revealing individual atoms.{moscomment}

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