Images Dated 22nd July 2003

Coloured MRI scan of healthy human head in profile

Human head. Coloured magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of a sagittal (profile) section of a healthy human head. The soft tissue of the lips, nose and skin appears dark blue. The jaw can be seen at lower left, with a tooth (pink) visible at lower centre. The curve of the skull is seen at upper right. MRI uses pulses of radio waves to provoke atoms in the body to release signals. The signal strength depends on the type of tissue, so an image can be built up of the internal features. This makes it a very useful tool when trying to diagnose a condition without performing exploratory surgery

© MEHAU KULYK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

John Churchills meeting with Louis XIV in the field would have been at a ceremony

John Churchill's meeting with Louis XIV in the field would have been at a ceremony similar to this royal visit to the French fortresses in Flanders in 1680 - engraving - Le Voyage du Roy

© TopFoto.co.uk

17th Century, Ceremony, Coach, Corelli Barnett Author, English Military Historian, Engraving, Escort, First Duke Of Marlborough, Historical, Marlborough Book Title, Page 42, Royalty, Seventeenth Century, Visit

Earliest recording of a European meteorite

Earliest recorded European meteorite. Medieval manuscript page which is the first to record a meteorite (shown in woodcut image at top). It fell near Ensisheim, a town in Alsace which is now in France, on the morning of 7 November 1492. The "thunderstone" was interpreted as a sign of God's anger. It is thought that the meteorite weighed almost 130 kilogrammes (kg), of which a 55 kg mass remains. The meteorite was a stony chondrite type; chondrites make up about 86% of the solar system's meteorites. About 500 meteorites hit Earth each year, but most fall in the sea or remote regions & go unrecorded. Meteorites were not widely accepted as having an extraterrestrial origin until 1803

© D. VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY