CATALYTIC REACTIONS?

If you have a photo or other

graphic that reflects an aspect of life

(including laboratory life) or a

quotation that scientists might

appreciate that would be fit to print

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send it to us via e-mail:

<catalyst@nih.gov>; fax: 402-4303; or mail: Building 2, Room 2E26.

Also, we welcome letters to the editor for publication and your reactions to anything on the Catalyst pages.

In Future Issues...

Research Festival Highlights

Now, Voyager

How To Do Right by Postdocs

Can you see the eye sockets?	fMRI of the brain of an anonymous NIHer

Kids' Catalyst: Reading Minds

Years ago, there was only one way to
really see the structures of the living brain, and it involved high-risk procedures and was therefore a last resort.

Now, with little more discomfort than lying in the same place for a while, we can capture fantastic images like the ones to the right and below. We can zoom in not only on the structure of the brain, but also on which particular part of it is working when one is thinking. Talk about reading minds!

But fMRIs (functional magnetic resonance imaging scans), CTs (computerized tomography scans), and X-rays are just some of the acronym soup helping doctors diagnose and study the body in ways never before possible without actual exploratory surgery.

With medical imaging and significant advances in technology, we can see minds working—and hearts and other organs—and get those pictures that are worth a thousand words.

—Jennifer White