Experiments done with Bi-2212 as a superconductor may lead to a MR device with a major jump in resolution for hospitals and researchers. Bi-2212 is a bismuth containing compound that is superconductive at high temperatures -- in the world of superconductive materials this means 90 to 12 degrees Kelvin. The relatively low temperature (for non-superconductivity type people) of 12 degrees is achieved by using liquid nitrogen to keep the material cool enough to be used in a high magnetic fields. It is believed that by using Bi-2212 for the large magnets used in MR machines instead of the currently used niobium could increase the magnetic field from 21.1 Tesla to 30 Tesla without increasing the cost of the machines significantly. Following the current paradigm of niobium based high magnetic fields costs about 2 million dollars extra for an additional tesla unit. The higher the telsas of the magnetic field used in MR scans, the higher resolution the images produced will be and the more accurate the measurements obtained.

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