My American mate Karen received a serious bump to the noggin a few months back. She ended up in hospital for a couple of days, and suffered from vertigo for several weeks, until some expert came along and tilted her in just the right way to reposition some tiny things in her inner-ear. (No, I didn't make that up.)
I wouldn't normally disclose friends' personal medical details on Gruts, but Karen, being a science nut, has been tweeting quite happily about her experiences on Twitter. She has even changed her Twitter avatar to show herself wearing a crash-helmet. Yesterday, she went for a routine, precautionary brain-scan:
The MRI contrast dye is making me feel a little icky. 🙁
— Karen James (@kejames) January 11, 2013
@friendsofdarwin Yes. I'll find a nice representative pic… you know, one where my brain looks ginormous.
— Karen James (@kejames) January 11, 2013
@kejames You could have smiled!
— Friends of Darwin (@friendsofdarwin) January 11, 2013
A friend has a brain-scan, and, minutes later, she is sharing it like holiday snaps. We are living in the future.
Assuming that's an MRI using a Gd chelate contrast agent then my old boss wrote the patent that made those contrast agents a commercial product. Amazing what you can do with some obscure elements and a huge fuck-off magnet!
To use one of your phrases Mr C' : We are an amazing species.