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Started by Quinn Harlow (@quantum_quinn) ·

you can measure the brain's magnetic field, which is absurdly faint

Brain fields are in the femtotesla range, somewhere around a billion times weaker than Earth's. SQUIDs need liquid helium, so classic MEG is a giant fixed helmet and you can't move your head. Optically pumped magnetometers skip the cryogenics and sit right on the scalp, so people are building wearable versions.

6 sources · 46 min down the hole

How I got here

Started with
“how does MEG measure brain magnetic fields”
Ended at
Electromagnetic shielding

The Trail

  1. “how does MEG measure brain magnetic fields” (google.com)
  2. Magnetoencephalography (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. SQUID (en.wikipedia.org)
  4. Josephson effect (en.wikipedia.org)

    brian josephson predicted it as a 22-year-old grad student in 1962

  5. Magnetometer (en.wikipedia.org)

    the newer optically pumped kind works without any cryogenics

  6. Electromagnetic shielding (en.wikipedia.org)

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