Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

3 comments

This Tiny 3D Printed MRI Sensor Could Give Doctors a Clearer Look Inside a Baby’s Heart

For some of medicine’s smallest patients, getting a clear MRI scan can be one of the biggest challenges. An infant’s heart may be no larger than a walnut, yet it can beat rapidly and move constantly during an examination. At the same time, most MRI equipment is designed around standard sizes that are better suited to adults.

Now, researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have developed a promising solution: flexible MRI sensors that can be customized for individual patients and 3D-printed in less than 10 minutes for about $30.

In early testing, the new sensors produced approximately four times greater image contrast than standard commercial MRI coils. The technology could make MRI scans more precise, comfortable and adaptable, particularly for infants and children whose bodies change quickly as they grow. The research has been published in Nature Communications.

A New Approach to Pediatric MRI

MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, uses powerful magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body. A key part of the system is the MRI coil, which works much like an antenna. It detects signals produced by the body during the scan and helps turn them into images.

The position of the coil matters greatly. When it is placed close to the part of the body being examined, it can receive stronger signals and produce clearer images.

This creates a problem for young patients. A coil designed for an adult may not fit closely around an infant or child. Gaps between the sensor and the body can reduce the quality of the signal. More importantly, children grow quickly, meaning a coil that fits one year may not provide the same close fit a few months or years later.

Yasser Khan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, compares the challenge to choosing a camera lens.

Using a large lens to photograph a very small object does not provide the same precision as using a lens designed for that object. Similarly, a customized MRI coil can provide a better view of a small area of the body.

Flexible Sensors That Follow the Body

Khan’s team wanted to create an MRI coil that could closely follow the contours of a patient's body. To achieve this, researchers spent about three years testing different materials, plastics and printable metals.

They eventually developed a method for 3D-printing conductive silver ink onto a soft thermoplastic elastomer. This flexible material has properties similar to human skin and can stretch by roughly 5% to 10%.

The result is an MRI sensor that can bend and move with the body rather than remaining rigid.

This flexibility is particularly useful when imaging parts of the body that are constantly moving. The technology could help researchers capture anatomy in motion, including the rapidly beating heart of a baby.

The sensors can also be designed digitally. Instead of manufacturing an entirely new piece of equipment through a lengthy industrial process, researchers can change the dimensions of a coil on a computer and print a new version.

The entire process can take less than 10 minutes, with a reported production cost of around $30.

Why Customization Matters

Traditional specialized MRI equipment can cost thousands of dollars and may take months or even years to manufacture. That can make highly customized imaging equipment difficult to produce for individual patients.

The USC approach could change that model.

A digital design can be adjusted according to a patient's size and anatomy. A new coil can then be printed when needed. For children, this could mean creating different sensors as their bodies grow.

The researchers believe this approach could eventually provide doctors with equipment that is better matched to individual patients, potentially improving the quality of diagnostic images.

The early results are especially encouraging. During testing, the flexible coils delivered roughly four times greater image contrast than commercially available standard versions.

Higher image contrast can make anatomical structures easier to distinguish, which is particularly important when doctors are examining very small organs or complicated structures.

A Powerful Tool for Imaging the Heart

One of the most exciting possibilities is pediatric and fetal heart imaging.

A baby's heart is small, moves rapidly and can be difficult to image clearly. Capturing a moving heart requires not only a sensitive MRI system but also technology capable of working with motion.

The new sensors are being developed alongside specialized MRI technology at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. This combination could allow researchers to explore more advanced ways of capturing anatomy while it is moving.

The technology may be particularly valuable for cardiovascular imaging, where doctors need detailed information about the structure and function of the heart.

John Wood, director of cardiovascular MRI at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and a professor of pediatrics and radiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, collaborates with USC researchers on difficult pediatric imaging challenges, including real-time imaging of the fetal heart.

Collaboration Behind the Innovation

The development of the flexible MRI sensors highlights the importance of collaboration between different areas of science and medicine.

Khan’s laboratory specializes in flexible and wearable electronics that can bend, stretch and conform to the human body. Meanwhile, the Dynamic Imaging Science Center, led by Krishna Shrinivas Nayak, professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering at USC Viterbi, develops advanced MRI technologies capable of imaging the body in motion.

Clinical experts contribute knowledge about the needs of patients and the challenges doctors face in real-world medical imaging.

Bringing these groups together allowed the researchers to combine materials science, electronics, engineering, MRI technology and clinical expertise.

What Could Come Next?

The technology is still being developed and tested, so more research will be needed before customized 3D-printed MRI coils become widely available in hospitals.

However, the concept offers an important new direction for medical imaging. Instead of forcing patients to adapt to standardized equipment, MRI technology could increasingly be designed around the patient.

For infants and children, that could be especially valuable. Their bodies are smaller, their anatomy changes rapidly and some of their organs are constantly moving. A flexible sensor that fits closely to the body could help overcome several of these challenges at once.

The USC researchers envision a future in which customized MRI equipment can be designed, printed and used quickly and affordably.

If that vision becomes reality, a small, inexpensive 3D-printed sensor could make a very big difference in how doctors see the smallest patients.

Reference: Muñoz, F., Tian, Y., Lê, T. et al. Improved dynamic MRI of the wrist and heart at 0.55 T enabled by rapid 3D printed flexible coils. Nat Commun 17, 5470 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71817-x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
3 comments
Read more

A New Type of Wormhole Could Slowly Become Stable Over Time, Scientists Suggest

For many years, wormholes have captured the imagination of scientists and science fiction fans. They are often shown as magical tunnels through space that can connect two faraway places in the universe. If wormholes really exist, they could one day make it possible to travel huge distances in a very short time. But there is one big problem—no one has ever found a real wormhole. They remain only theoretical objects predicted by the mathematics of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Even though they have never been observed, physicists continue studying them because they help us understand the limits of gravity and spacetime. Now, researchers Ditta and Channuie have proposed a new model of a time-dependent traversable wormhole . Unlike many earlier models, their wormhole is not completely still. Instead, it changes with time because energy flows through it. As this flow slowly fades away, the wormhole naturally becomes stable. Their study offers a new and simple way to understan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Black Holes That Never Dies

Black holes are powerful objects in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape them. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes can slowly lose energy by giving off tiny particles. This process is called Hawking radiation . Over time, the black hole gets smaller and hotter, and in the end, it disappears completely. But new research by Menezes and his team shows something different. Using a theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) , they studied black holes with quantum corrections. In their model, the black hole does not vanish completely. Instead, it stops shrinking when it reaches a very small size. This leftover is called a black hole remnant . They also studied something called grey-body factors , which affect how much energy escapes from a black hole. Their findings show that the black hole cools down and stops losing mass once it reaches a minimum mass . This new model removes the idea of a “singularity” at the center of the black hole and gives us a better ...
Post a Comment
Read more