4 ms·

There's a reason we call MRI machines MRIs, and not NMRIs. Rebranding around public perception matters, whether we like it or not.

acidburnNSA 7y ago
Yeah, but I think just calling nuclear energy thorium or quantum energy or whatever is too shallow. The nuclear element of nMRI is kind of peripheral, but I don't think anyone will let you do that with mass-to-energy conversion power plants. With airplanes, everyone knows they're really safe. Everyone says they're safer than cars. People are still afraid of airplanes but they're reassured. It'd be nice if nuclear fission could get to this level in the public zeitgeist.
- runlevel1 7y ago
  > With airplanes, everyone knows they're really safe. Everyone says they're safer than cars. Though true by many metrics, the fact that this has entered into the public zeitgeist is a victory in marketing. While commercial air travel is much safer per hour and per KM, it is less safe by the metric used by the industry and its insurers: Deaths per journey.[1] However, there's a strong argument to be made that time and distance are more relevant to the consumer anyways. Still, the per-journey metric could have been weaponized by an opponent of commercial air travel to assert the opposite. [1]: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16321985-200-flight-into-danger/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16321985-200-flight-i...
fsh 7y ago
I don't buy it. For example in Germany MRI is usually called "Kernspintomographie" ("nuclear spin tomography") and nobody has any issue with that.
- Baeocystin 7y ago
  It was genuinely a problem here in the US. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4a3e/c44df38873b8bf1e79a30e290d4cbdf9f131.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4a3e/c44df38873b8bf1e79a30e...
- ahartmetz 7y ago
  Isn't it more commonly called "Magnetresonanztomographie" (MRT) now? Same PR problem, people are scared of atoms.
- lucb1e 7y ago
  And yet I can't step out my door without finding anti nuclear posters and stickers in Germany. I've never seen this for any other topic: not Jesus, not Snowden asylum, not je suis charlie, but nuclear power? Somehow someone managed to setup a hugely effective brainwashing campaign for that.
- ryanmercer 7y ago
  And the field in the United States is 'nuclear medicine', a specialty of 'radiology'. And, well, an 'x-ray' is called an 'x-ray' not a 'bone selfie'.
paulddraper 7y ago
> There's a reason we call MRI machines MRIs, and not NMRIs My dad sold microwaves when they were new; they were careful never to say "radiation" or "irradiated" or anything like that.

acidburnNSA 7y ago

Yeah, but I think just calling nuclear energy thorium or quantum energy or whatever is too shallow. The nuclear element of nMRI is kind of peripheral, but I don't think anyone will let you do that with mass-to-energy conversion power plants. With airplanes, everyone knows they're really safe. Everyone says they're safer than cars. People are still afraid of airplanes but they're reassured. It'd be nice if nuclear fission could get to this level in the public zeitgeist.

runlevel1 7y ago
> With airplanes, everyone knows they're really safe. Everyone says they're safer than cars. Though true by many metrics, the fact that this has entered into the public zeitgeist is a victory in marketing. While commercial air travel is much safer per hour and per KM, it is less safe by the metric used by the industry and its insurers: Deaths per journey.[1] However, there's a strong argument to be made that time and distance are more relevant to the consumer anyways. Still, the per-journey metric could have been weaponized by an opponent of commercial air travel to assert the opposite. [1]: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16321985-200-flight-into-danger/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16321985-200-flight-i...

fsh 7y ago

I don't buy it. For example in Germany MRI is usually called "Kernspintomographie" ("nuclear spin tomography") and nobody has any issue with that.

Baeocystin 7y ago
It was genuinely a problem here in the US. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4a3e/c44df38873b8bf1e79a30e290d4cbdf9f131.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4a3e/c44df38873b8bf1e79a30e...
ahartmetz 7y ago
Isn't it more commonly called "Magnetresonanztomographie" (MRT) now? Same PR problem, people are scared of atoms.
lucb1e 7y ago
And yet I can't step out my door without finding anti nuclear posters and stickers in Germany. I've never seen this for any other topic: not Jesus, not Snowden asylum, not je suis charlie, but nuclear power? Somehow someone managed to setup a hugely effective brainwashing campaign for that.
ryanmercer 7y ago
And the field in the United States is 'nuclear medicine', a specialty of 'radiology'. And, well, an 'x-ray' is called an 'x-ray' not a 'bone selfie'.

paulddraper 7y ago

> There's a reason we call MRI machines MRIs, and not NMRIs My dad sold microwaves when they were new; they were careful never to say "radiation" or "irradiated" or anything like that.