Xenon

Xenon is one of the noble gases – tasteless, odorless, and colourless. Researchers are developing methods to strongly polarize the xenon nucleus, making it a gaseous magnet.

When a patient breathes such xenon, spectacular magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the lungs, a part of the body not usually visible with MRI, can be produced.

Since the magnetized gas is also absorbed by the lungs, scientists hope that it can be used to reveal diseased or injured tissue elsewhere in the body.