13 ms·
CT Scan of a Pumpkin
- sabujp 5y agoand for mri https://www.clovisopenmri.com/blog/512 https://www.clovisopenmri.com/blog/512
- thangngoc89 5y agoThose were high resolution slices of CT scan and nice visualization as well. One can only hope human CT scans could achieve this level of preciseness without increasing the radiation dose.
- lostlogin 5y ago> One can only hope human CT scans could achieve this level of preciseness without increasing the radiation dose. It looks like a pretty standard scan to me and the article says the protocol used is an extremity protocol. I work in radiology and various non-human things go though the scanner from time to time - fruit, pets, fossils, broken equipment that needs internal visualisation (sort of like the patients).
- thangngoc89 5y agoWell the article says that each slice is 600 microns apart so definitely smaller than a typical human CT that I’ve worked with where each slice is at least 1 mm apart. Also, the contrast is very high which means higher radiation does per slice is needed. In human context, like others have stated in this thread, if you don’t need a higher resolution then don’t order one. But sometimes, you only know if some areas needed higher resolution after you’ve seen the result. And the radiation dose for an additional, higher resolution and smaller areas might be much greater than just capturing the original CT with higher resolution.
- lostlogin 5y ago> Well the article says that each slice is 600 microns apart so definitely smaller than a typical human CT that I’ve worked with where each slice is at least 1 mm apart. I’ve just checked our PACS. The extremity protocols are at .6mm, face at .75mm and spine is 1mm. It was .6mm 10 years ago when I ran them at other sites, so I don’t think this is anything pioneering. You possibly do the same, but we generally reconstruct thicker. 1mm acquisitions reconstructed in another plane at 1mm look a bit gross as the acquisition needs to be thinner than the recon. The dose is not high on modern equipment.
- happyhardcore 5y agoRoughly how much higher is the dose required for this level of detail than that which is considered safe for humans?
- mertd 5y agoNo level of radiation exposure is safe. How much of CT radiation is considered acceptable depends on the application.
- lostlogin 5y agoDose response being linear no threshold is the operating assumption. Radiation hormesis may be a thing but it’s difficult to be certain at low doses. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis
- lostlogin 5y agoAs far as I can tell, it’s not higher dose. > It was scanned on a GE Revolution CT machine. The scan was performed using technique optimized for human extremities, and employed very thin slice thickness of 600 microns.
- superjan 5y agoSorry to be such a bore but when scanning humans the images should only be good enough to make a good diagnosis. If they are better than needed, the wise thing to do is lower the radiation exposure.
- bonyt 5y agoIf you download the video and extract the frames (like, with ffmpeg), and load it into 3d Slicer (slicer.org), you can actually get a 3D reconstruction out of it! Out of a youtube video of the slices! https://i.imgur.com/wmPQvfn.jpg https://i.imgur.com/wmPQvfn.jpg
- DaftDank 5y agoI wonder if this would work for my hospital CT scans I've had in the last ~5 years. They all come on a CD, with a software program loaded onto it with the scans to view it in. It would be cool to be able to 3d visualize it all
- Pigalowda 5y agoDon’t go through that much trouble! There’s an easier solution. You can download free radiology viewers RadiAnt (windows compatible) or Osirix (Mac compatible). Your imaging is in DICOM format probably and you can use Radiant to export all of your slices into .jpg if you want. You can also do 3D reconstructions of soft tissue, bone, lung, etc.
- lostlogin 5y agoHoros (Mac) is another - I think it’s the freeware version of Osirix. You can find InteleViewer if you hunt about as well (Mac and PC).
- dylan604 5y ago>Don’t go through that much trouble! You realize this is HN where readers pride themselves on the trouble that can be accomplished in a weekend. >There’s an easier solution. But what else is one to do at the weekend?
- spookthesunset 5y agoTry to turn it into an stl file, slice it and print it :-)
- landonxjames 5y agoIs “They did a CT scan on a pumpkin” the next evolution of “They did surgery on a grape”[0]? [0] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/they-did-surgery-on-a-grape https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/they-did-surgery-on-a-grape
- resoluteteeth 5y agoMaybe it's the next evolution of doing an fMRI on a dead salmon: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/scicurious-brain/ignobel-prize-in-neuroscience-the-dead-salmon-study/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/scicurious-brain/ignobe...
- adrianmonk 5y agoAs a partially texture-based eater, looking at these images makes me feel triggered. But it also makes me feel grateful for food processors, blenders, etc. that can puree pumpkin into delicious pie filling.
- tamaharbor 5y agoHappy Halloween!
- h3mb3 5y agoIt certainly triggers my trypophobia!
- Grimm1 5y agoWell that's one of the more interesting things I think I'll see today! Neat.
- joelbondurant 5y agoThis pre-science must be censored until ordained by the Science Ministry.
- jliptzin 5y agoI am considering whether to have a CT scan done of my heart. I am 35 yo and healthy, but have bad history of heart disease in my family. No current issues for me though. My doctor recommended I do the scan just to see if I have any plaque buildup, but is this not a lot of unnecessary radiation at a fairly young age? I hear it is like getting 1,000 x-rays done. Can anyone qualified chime in?
- lostlogin 5y agoHave a read up on what the dose is and what this equates to. It’s low, and importantly, the alternative tests are pretty invasive. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4789203/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4789203/
- PragmaticPulp 5y agoThe FDA has a great page on the topic with citations to medical journals: https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/medical-x-ray-imaging/what-are-radiation-risks-ct https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/medical-x-ra... The short answer: > If you combine the natural risk of a fatal cancer and the estimated risk from a 10 mSv CT scan, the total risk may increase from 400 chances in 2000 to 401 chances in 2000. Your specific CT scan of the heart might be less than half of the 10mSv dose used in this example so the radiation risk is even lower.
- dehrmann 5y ago> fatal cancer Lot of non-fatal cancer out there, too.
- superjan 5y agoFor plaque buildup they normally do a quick low resolution scan (to calculate an “agatson score”). I did not know by heart, but according to webmd.com it’s equivalent to 1 year background radiation. Pretty and high resolution images like the pumpkin above are possible but require more radiation. They should use the simplest scan that answers the doctor’s question. A good question to ask is ‘why’: if no treatment decision depends on the outcome of the scan, the downsides can easily outweigh the benefits. A healthy lifestyle is advisable no matter what the scan says. I am no doctor. I work on software for cardiologists.
- nealabq 5y agoThe pumpkin flowers have 5 petals, and the female flowers have 5 stigma, but the seeds inside grow in 6 columns. Which I find puzzling. Google brings up https://threesixty360.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/the-mystery-of-the-fibonacci-pumpkin/ https://threesixty360.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/the-mystery-o... which points out a 3-fold rotational symmetry in the pumpkin. And if you look, the 6 seed-columns are really 3 pairs of columns. Five and three seem less puzzling I supposed, because Fibonacci. Still, I was expecting 5.
- gus_massa 5y agoI'm confused too, but look at this photo in the article http://randomfootage.homestead.com/pumpkinTangerine1.jpg http://randomfootage.homestead.com/pumpkinTangerine1.jpg It looks like there is an empty slot at 11-12 in the clock, and also an empty slot at 7 in the clock. Each one looks partially split in two, so I can imagine that they are the missing 2 parts of the structure of the flower.
- Kydlaw 5y agoThe most powerful CT Scan has been unveil very recently, with a magnet able to pull almost 12 teslas (where regular ones usually go to 1,5 to 3 teslas)[1]. Source is in french, but you'll find a similar video of... a pumpkin :) They explain in the article that pumpkins are used because they share a similar shape and structure as well as water ratio as a human head. They got the magnet from previous research efforts from a research team dedicated to that domain (part of the french research around nuclear and alternative energies). Instead of trashing the 130t magnet, they proposed to adapt it for medical imagery. It will know help research on the Alzheimer disease. https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/decouverte-scientifique/sciences-l-irm-le-plus-puissant-au-monde-vient-de-livrer-ses-premieres-images_4797467.html https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/decouverte-scientifique/sc... Edit: format
- nosianu 5y agoThat's MRT - magnetic resonance imaging. CT scans - computed tomography - use x-rays. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CT_scan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CT_scan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging The applications for both are slightly different. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/154877#possible_risks https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/154877#possible_ri... There is a nice course on edX (the content is free), "Introduction to Biomedical Imaging", which teaches the basics of the most common imaging technologies (also adds ultra-sounds and radiology-based scans): https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-biomedical-imaging https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-biomedical-imagin...
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> Next, it's obvious how much air there is in a pumpkin. All the black on these source images represent air, quite a bit of its overall volume. This made me really curious. The pumpkin is airtight and develops entirely within that airtight seal. It's full of gas pockets. How similar are the undisturbed contents of those gas pockets to atmospheric air?
- heavyset_go 5y agoI wouldn't be surprised if gas exchange occurred through membranes, so that the gas inside is the same composition as the gas outside.
- GuB-42 5y agoA pumpkin is not airtight. Like most living things, plants breathe in O2 and breathe out CO2 (in addition to photosynthesis which does the opposite). So the air inside a pumpkin is most likely atmospheric air with less O2 and more CO2, maybe other gasses that participate in the pumpkin metabolism.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> Like most living things, plants breathe in O2 and breathe out CO2 (in addition to photosynthesis which does the opposite). At what "level" does this happen? Is it similar to an animal with a diaphragm centralizing the intake of oxygen and lungs centralizing distribution to every part of the animal, or more along the lines of cells that are exposed to the air taking in oxygen locally and using it for their own needs?
- pests 5y agoPlants absorb oxygen, moisture, etc through their stoma found in the stems, roots, and leaves directly into their cells. From there its processed into ATP via the mitochondria just like we would.
- OJFord 5y ago'Most'? As opposed to all? I thought that was part of the definition, such as it is?
- hovden 5y agoWe build an ideal 3D Volumetric Viz tool: https://tomviz.org/ https://tomviz.org/ . Open-source and built for reproducible open-science. It focuses on volumetric data analysis, not just surfaces. Hopefully, HN finds it useful.
- Apocryphon 5y agoHomestead… now that’s a host I’ve not seen in a long time. Good example of websites as they used to be.
- bsagdiyev 5y agoI came here to comment this! So many old game fan websites still link to a bunch of broken Homestead sites. I’m amazed they’re still around. Got a little nostalgia when I saw the domain.