As MRI researchers, we are also responsible for passing on our enthusiasm for our research field to the next generation. For students, many universities already offer a wide range of courses. For middle school students, there are also existing programs such as Girls’ Day. There are even some programs available for preschoolers and kindergarteners [1,2]. However, there is a lack for an even younger generation as babies. With our approach, we now aim to reach the even younger generation, who have previously been denied access to this knowledge.
Following the concept of Chris Ferrie’s Baby University series [3], we created a book using standard MR knowledge [4] and translated it into the baby-understandable domain. The final book was printed using a commercial photo printing service (CEWE, Oldenburg, Germany).
With the 22-page book “Magnet-Resonanz-Tomographie für Babys” we closed the gap between birth and preschool age.
Many fields of research, such as quantum mechanics, artificial intelligence, and astrophysics, are already represented in the Baby University series [3]. We are closing the gap for the field of MRI.
While we used minimal text, a focus on large images, and a baby-friendly hardcover format, we specifically target the youngest audience. However, we are not limited to babies; it can also be helpful for people with little MRI knowledge as a book that provides fundamental background knowledge in an easy way.
Further steps would be to offer the book in other languages and more concepts in MRI as different contrast weighting or different sequences.
Literature:
[1] WDR. Die Maus: Magnetresonanztomografie. 2025 Mar 23. Available from: URL: https://shorturl.at/vq4p9 (Accessed: 16.04.2026)
[2] Gerda die Giraffe, Siemens Healthineers. Wohlbefinden der Kinder neu definieren. Available from: URL: Wohlbefinden der Kinder neu definieren – Siemens Healthineers Deutschland (Accessed: 16.04.2026)
[3] Ferrie C. Baby-University. Loewe-Bücher. [4] Brown RW, Cheng Y-CN, Haacke EM, Thompson MR, Venkatesan R. Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Physical Principles and Sequence Design. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell; 2014. ISBN 978-0-471-72085-0.