Can you tell what it is yet? The amazing MRI scans that look inside your weekly shop (and even what's in your garden)

It is a unique look inside the food we eat - although perhaps not what the makers of some of the most hi-tech medical scanning equipment in the world had in mind.

Andy Ellison of the Boston University medical school decided to use a high resolution MRI scanner in a unique way - to see inside his shopping.

He created a series of high resolution photos and moving images that show exactly what's inside everything from a banana to a star fruit.

The interior of an Heirloom tomato taken using a high resolution MRI scanner

HOW THEY WERE TAKEN

The scans were taken using a Philips MRI scanner similar to the one below. 

They were used to calibrate the machine before it started its more normal job of scanning patients.

Ellison decided to use the fruit to test and calibrate the machines before their real work began.

He first tried the technique when he needed to calibrate a machine - and spotted an orange nearby.

'I was blown away by the incredible complexity that began to show itself so quickly as I went through the slices of the orange,' he said.

 

'I'm not taking time on the scanner that could be used for a clinical scan or anything like that, which is what some people think,' he said.

'Instead I use the fruits and vegetables to warm up the scanner and do a kind of quality assurance of the machine.'

Ellison began stitching together the images to form the animated gifs seen here, which he then posted to his blog.

'Some have been easier to image than others but mostly they end up looking beautiful,' he said.

The interior of a cucumber as seen by the MRI scanner

Broccoli also received the MRI treatment, revealing the beauty of its heads as the scanner move down

Ellison was also able to create a 3D view of the broccoli rotating 

Corn on the cob, gradually revealing the corn inside the scanner

A side-on view of a corn on the cob

The interior of a cucumber

A starfruit

A banana was also run through the scanner to help calibrate it

Ellison has also experimented with flowers - here, a sunflower is gradually revealed

The leaves of an artichoke are revealed in this animation

The flowers of a pink protea plant

A lily bud

Source : Daily Mail