The most powerful magnetic resonance tomograph for cancer research in the world will go into service at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg in August 2008. At the heart of the unit is a 32 ton electromagnet from Siemens Magnet Technology in Oxford, England. Among others, the equipment features helium cooling which cools the electromagnet to minus 269 degrees Celsius. As a result of this, the electricity flows through the wire coil, several hundred kilometers in length, without loss and creates a magnetic field strength of 7 Tesla – 140,000 times that of the earth’s magnetic field and about four times as strong as comparable units in radiology practices. Where previously, only images of structures from within the body larger than one millimeter were viewable, the new unit makes details far smaller than one millimeter visible. With the higher field strength, the Heidelberg medics are among others hoping for new insights into the development of cancer.