The Beatles and Computerized Tomography


Dr. Feres Secaf was my Professor of Radiology when I was studying Medicine at Escola Paulista de Medicina. Naturally, there are no more professors of Radiology; the area has expanded to include ultrasonography, magnetic resonance, etc., so the medical specialty is now called Medical Imaging.


Prof. Secaf was one of the pioneers of Computerized Tomography in Brazil. He once told me that the Beatles were intensely involved with the development of Computerized Tomography. In fact, he told me this story before the technique became  generally available. I have found some vague references about the Beatles in relation with CT scans, but no conclusions could be found, and there are also suggestions that the whole thing was just fiction.

 But the story that Prof. Secaf told me had some interesting details. It was well known  that the Beatles had their own recording studio, called Apple – nothing to do with the present day Apple Computers and iPhones. The Apple Recording Company was linked to EMI (Electrical and Musical Industries). 


 One day the Beatles asked their recording engineer to build a tape recorder with several recording heads disposed in a circle, in order to create some special sound effects. While building the recorder, the engineer felt that if several X-ray ampules were disposed in a circle, a computer would be able to reconstruct images in different ways.


 In Great Britain organizations that have an annual profit exceeding a certain amount have the obligation to transfer a proportion of this profit to research projects. Apple was too small, so the engineer took his idea to EMI. They felt it was interesting and invested in it. As you know, Computerized Tomography was developed by Godfrey Hounsfield, who earned a Nobel prize for his enormous contribution to medical diagnosis.


 Prof. Secaf also told me that the Beatles offered their profits from one of their records – Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band – to help finance the development of the first machine.


 According to Dr. Adrian Thomas, who published an article on Hounsfield in AuntMinnieEurope’s site *,  “the Beatles recorded for EMI and the profits funded the scanner research: this is an urban legend, although it is widely believed. There is no evidence for it. EMI Music did not fund EMI Medical.”


 Recently, however, I found some relative evidence that Prof. Secaf’s story may carry some truth. Take a look at this picture, made by Hounsfield, which is a rough schematic drawing of the system. And note the circle with the different X-ray heads.
Illustration by Godfrey Hounsfield showing the concept behind body imaging *.
I do not think that it is possible to verify if this story is true. But I felt that it should be told. I personally believe that medical science may owe something to the Beatles.  
* 40 years of CT: Facts you may not know about Godfrey Hounsfield – retrieved from AuntMinnieEurope.com


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