The development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines has been one of the greatest success stories in medical diagnostics of the last century. However, as with other forms of cutting-edge technology, the cost is huge when things go wrong. How huge? Around $30,000, to be exact.

The evolution of the MRI machine began way back in the 1930s, when the first rudimentary magnetic resonance images were developed to help doctors diagnose patient diseases such as cancer. The new technology attracted some of the greatest scientific minds of the era to develop yet more sophisticated uses for MRI. One of the biggest developments came in 1969, when Dr. Raymond Damadian used the technology on rats to prove that such imaging could allow medical professionals to differentiate between cancer cells a

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