British Pioneer of Medical Imaging Wins Nobel Prize

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A BRITISH scientist who pioneered the development of medical imaging has won this year's Nobel prize in medicine for a technique that has become a routine diagnostic aid for everything from cancer to back pain.

Sir Peter Mansfield, emeritus professor of physics at Nottingham University, shares the pounds 920,000 prize with Paul Lauterbur of the University of Illinois "for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)". MRI scans allow doctors to see inside the body by building images of organs and tissues.

Sir Peter, 70 this week, and Professor Lauterbur, 74, improved the technology in refinements that began more than 30 years ago. The Nobel …