Beatles fans rejoice: The Fab Four’s hit singles funded development of CT scanner!

THEIR SONGS SAVED LIVES… NO REALLY!

We all knew science and song go together like a horse and carriage (Related: ”Math, for children. And adults who want to laugh at James Blunt making fun of himself” October 19, 2007 and ”Some great science ear candy” August 01, 2007. Not to mention Kate Fink’s fabulous list of the Top Ten Science Songs for petri dish slaves)

But this story takes that relationship to a whole new level of awesomeness.

EMI is the parent company of The Beatles’ two record labels, Capitol Records and Apple Records. And it had its fingers in several pies at the time (they gave the BBC its first television transmitter), one of which included R&D in medical imaging technology. So they took the heaps and heaps of money they made off of the sales of some 200 million Beatles singles and used it to fund Sir Godfrey Hounsfield’s work on his CT scanner prototype at EMI Central Research Laboratories in Hayes, England. As a result he spent four years tinkering on it. Lo and behold the first EMI-Scanner was installed in a hospital in Wimbledon, England in 1972.

EMI initially estimated that the global demand for their machine, which used series of x-rays to generate a 3D image of the soft tissues inside one’s body, would peak at 25. Since then the technology has burgeoned and CT scans are a staple tool for medical practitioners.

Which begs the question. What are the best Beatles’ lyrics to hijack and tell this tale? Anna’s vote is for “Help!”:

Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,
Now I find I’ve *imaged* my mind and opened up the doors.

Me? I think “Please Mister Postman” works well:

Doctor Godfrey look and see
If you got time in your scanner for me
I been waiting such a long time
Since I heard of that tumor of mine

You gotta wait a minute, wait a minute - so still
You gotta wait a minute, wait a minute - soooo stilllll
You gotta wait a minute, wait a minute - soooo still
You gotta check it and see, one more time for me…