Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Catching Crabs
10 March 2017

Catching Crabs

Rather than ending up on a dinner plate, this crab is demonstrating an important new piece of medical technology. It’s been put into a machine known as an MR Linac, which uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to visualise the inside of a patient’s body (or crab’s body) in real time as well as delivering cancer-killing radiotherapy. This is particularly useful for treating cancers that move within the body, such as lung tumours. It’s also handy for spotting cancers that don’t show up easily with other imaging methods. The image on the left was taken using just the MRI scanner, while the one on the right was receiving radiotherapy at the same time. There’s no difference between them, proving that the radiation beams don’t affect the picture quality. Visualising tumours so clearly means that radiotherapy doses can be targeted more accurately, preventing damage to nearby healthy tissue and reducing side effects.

Written by Kat Arney

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.