Ultrasound scanners typically consist of a hand-held device called a transducer to scan the body and a computer with a viewing screen to display the processed data as an image. Crystals in the transducer send high-frequency sound waves into the body and it detects the returning echoes. This is called the piezoelectric effect and was discovered by Pierre Curie (1859–1906) in 1880.

Look Inside Your Body by Louie Stowell | Goodreads Look Inside Your Body by Louie Stowell | Goodreads

Learn more about your body in this lift-the-flap Look Inside Your Body Usborne book. Flaps are layered under flaps to dive deeper into the body layers. In 1971, American scientist Raymond Damadian (1936–) discovered that MRI could be used for medical diagnosis. The radio signals emitted by cancer cells in a tumour were different from those in healthy cells and could be isolated by the MRI scanner. Damadian built the first whole-body MRI scanner in 1977, which he called the 'Indomitable'.

X-ray images were also utilised outside medicine. Between the 1920s and 1960s, for example, shoe-fitting fluoroscopes (also known as pedoscopes) could be found in many shoe shops. A child trying on new shoes would stand on the footpad of the machine while they, a parent and the sales assistant looked through viewing portholes at a continuous X-ray image. The fluorescent image would show the bones of the feet and an outline of the shoes to reveal how well they fitted.

Inside Your Body | Usborne | Be Curious See Inside Your Body | Usborne | Be Curious

It is written in an informative, factual but informal way which is beneficial because it is adding to the children’s vocabulary as well as understanding things that are going on with their own bodies in a fun way. This book is so great. It is so informative. My son loves to look and see what happens when you eat food (let’s be real – he loves to see the poop)! It has over 100 flaps (including flaps in flaps)! It shows how your muscles work and how your brain processes what you see. I highly recommend this book.” Other Usborne Books & More titles in the Series include: Because MRI can construct images of soft tissue, it's especially useful for diagnosing joint abnormalities, diseases of the liver and abdominal organs, and identifying tumours and uterine conditions such as fibroids. B Holtzmann-Kevles, Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1997) X-rays were the first technology that made it possible to see inside the body without having to open it up. They were discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen (1845–1923) at the end of the 1800s and had an immediate impact on anatomical study and diagnostics.

In MRI, the patient is placed in a powerful magnetic field, which influences the hydrogen atoms in the body. Short bursts of radio waves are then used to alter the atomic alignment created by the magnetic field. When the radio waves are turned off, the atoms return to their alignment and in so doing emit a weak radio signal of their own. R Bud and D J Warner (eds), Instruments of Science, An Historical Encyclopaedia (London: Science Museum, 1998) The result watered down an otherwise interesting and innovative programme. It could have easily been a half an hour shorter. Look Inside Your Body is one of the best Usborne books, and a book absolutely every family should own. It breaks down the body systems and functions in a way that’s easy for young kids to understand.