????1978年，愛德華?弗林博士的第一任妻子在心臟驟停后陷入昏迷，這位核物理學(xué)家當(dāng)時立下誓言：一定要打造一臺能夠挽救生命的機器。弗林的妻子于18個月后過世，但這段經(jīng)歷卻促使他立志要發(fā)明一項能夠使用磁場映射大腦活動的技術(shù)。

????弗林的第二任妻子在53歲時被診斷出患有早期乳腺癌，這時，他已經(jīng)做好了準(zhǔn)備，打算進行第二輪嘗試。他之前研制的技術(shù)再次被證明是有用的。雖然乳房X線照片已成功地檢測出異常細(xì)胞，但弗林認(rèn)為檢測和治療妻子的癌癥的程序似乎不夠充分。他說：“似乎根本沒必要使用放射療法。這種療法會在乳房組織上造成大量疤痕，她以后就再也無法進行有效的乳房X線檢查了。”

????于是，弗林一頭扎進了家里的車庫中（他的家在新墨西哥州阿爾伯克基），隨后的6個月里，他一直呆在那里，研究出了更好的辦法。弗林的目標(biāo)是，使用磁性納米粒子開發(fā)出一種比典型的乳房X線照片侵害性更小的乳腺癌檢測方法。“不幸的是，我在車庫里無法獲得完成這一設(shè)施所需的液體氦，”弗林開玩笑說。于是，他把他的設(shè)備搬到了新墨西哥大學(xué)健康科學(xué)中心（University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center）的一個實驗室中。通過與弗林新成立的公司Senior Scientifics合作，這臺現(xiàn)在被稱為超導(dǎo)量子干涉器（SQUID）的設(shè)備終于得以完成。

????弗林并不是第一位意識到數(shù)字化乳房X線照相術(shù)存在缺陷的人。全美各地的婦女都發(fā)現(xiàn)，這個檢測過程經(jīng)常讓人感到不適，很容易引發(fā)焦慮情緒。為了獲得一張清晰的圖像，數(shù)字化乳腺攝影機通常需要用兩個薄板擠壓乳房，這是為了讓所有的乳腺組織處于同等寬度。有些婦女乳房組織相對而言更豐滿緊密，甚至擠壓乳房這一行為有時都不足以獲得準(zhǔn)確的檢測結(jié)果，還需要采用核磁共振成像（MRI）或超聲波等手段進行后續(xù)檢查。

????醫(yī)療器械領(lǐng)域的大型公司正嘗試著尋找一種更好的辦法。通用電氣（General Electric）、飛利浦（Philips）和豪洛捷（Hologic）等公司都在爭取價值近60億美元的醫(yī)療成像行業(yè)更大的份額，行業(yè)分析機構(gòu)弗若斯特和沙利文公司（Frost & Sullivan）認(rèn)為，乳腺檢查設(shè)備是這一領(lǐng)域的重中之重。2011年，美國總計進行了大約4,000萬次乳房X線檢測，這個市場已經(jīng)成熟，亟待更出色的醫(yī)療技術(shù)。成像和數(shù)字化乳房X線檢測機今年在美國的銷售總額為4.25億美元，預(yù)計將維持緩慢但穩(wěn)健的增長勢頭（到2015年將增長4%）。

????When his first wife went into a coma following cardiac arrest in 1978, nuclear physicist Dr. Edward Flynn vowed to build a machine that could save lives. Flynn's wife died 18 months later, but the experience moved Flynn to create a technology that could map brain activity using magnetic fields.

????When Flynn's second wife was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer at 53 years old, he was ready for round two. The technology that he'd developed before would prove useful once again. While a mammogram had successfully detected abnormal cells, Flynn says that the procedures to detect and treat his wife's cancer seemed inadequate. "Radiation just didn't seem necessary. It would have caused a lot of scarring on the breast tissue and she would never be able to have another mammogram that worked," he says.

????So Flynn retreated to his garage at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he spent the next six months building something better. Flynn's aim was to use magnetic nano-particles to develop a less invasive method to detect breast cancer than a typical mammogram. "Unfortunately, I couldn't get liquid helium delivered to my garage to finish the device," Flynn says jokingly. And so he moved his operation to a facility at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, where the device now known as SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) was finished in partnership with his new business venture Senior Scientifics.

????Flynn is not the first to realize the flaws of digital mammography. Women around the country often find it an uncomfortable and anxiety inducing process. In order to get a clear image, a typical digital mammography machine squeezes the breast between two plates so that all of the breast tissue is of equal width. For women with more or denser breast tissue, even the act of squeezing the breast is sometimes not enough to get an accurate reading, and requires a follow up MRI or ultrasound.

????Major industry is trying to find a better way. General Electric (GE), Philips and Hologic (HOLX) are all striving for bigger pieces of the nearly $6 billion medical imaging industry, much of which is focused on breast screening devices according to industry analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. In 2011, roughly 40 million mammograms were performed in the U.S., making it a prime market for better medical technologies. Sales of film and digital mammography machines in the U.S. totaled $425 million this year and are expected to see a slow but steady overall growth of 4% by 2015.