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Science

Fetuses Caught Yawning In 4D 117

Rambo Tribble writes "Reuters reports 4D scans have conclusively shown that fetuses do yawn. Understandable, eh? After all, all they get is cable."
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Fetuses Caught Yawning In 4D

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  • Re:4D? (Score:0, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 22, 2012 @12:43PM (#42066681)

    They probably are using the tech that currently.creates 3d images and making a movie ofthat. Thus....4d. The 3d ultrasounds are pretty cool.

  • Re:4D? (Score:5, Informative)

    by dmbasso ( 1052166 ) on Thursday November 22, 2012 @12:44PM (#42066689)

    It is supposed to mean it has height, width, depth and time.

  • Re:4D? (Score:4, Informative)

    by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Thursday November 22, 2012 @12:47PM (#42066723) Journal

    They're 2D images of 3D objects.

    Nope. Ultrasound gives complete depth measurements. So each time step is an (X,Y,Z) data cube (actually (theta,phy,time)->response ), where response is the magnitude of the received sound in the microphone. Therefore each elenment in the video is therefore the tuple (X, Y, Z, T)->some value, i.e. 4 dimensional.

    The video shown is just a projection, but ultrasound gives multiple depth readings, not just a single 2D manifold, so the raw data (obviously not the video here) is certainly 4D data.

    So yeah, ultrasound does provide full 4D data and the files are immense.

  • Re:4D? (Score:3, Informative)

    by SuricouRaven ( 1897204 ) on Thursday November 22, 2012 @01:04PM (#42066835)

    2D is the standard slice ultrasound. 3D is the voxel view that shows three-dimensional structure. 4D is just 3D, but with a fast enough computer to update smoothly. Usually 2D is the most use for medical purposes, as a skilled operator can put together the image in their head and see much more internal structure - but for an unskilled viewer, they just look like formless blobs. 3D/4D are most often seen in relation to the abortion debate, where they are the bane of the pro-choice side who can't quite come up with anything to counter the pure emotive imagery of 'Look at the cute baby suck it's thumb!'

  • Re:4D? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 22, 2012 @02:12PM (#42067293)

    Every "imaging system" is practically worthless without the knowledge to interpret the results. Images from say FISH-microscopy are equally incomprehensible to the layperson, though it looks pretty "because color". And only because you might actually know "oh, thats a knee on that x-ray" does not mean you will spot the arthrosis because e.g. the subchondral cysts will only be "blobs and splotches" to you.

    Mind you, ultrasound has become really good lately. You wouldn't want to see images from the eighties in comparison to modern ones. And it is a dynamic imaging technique. Print-outs are only for documentation, seldom for interpretation. Every clinician worth his salt that wants to verify or understand the written diagnosis will want to re-sound it to see it first-hand.

    Source: I do that, though not yet for a living.

  • Re:This is silly. (Score:0, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 22, 2012 @06:58PM (#42069159)

    Not according to liberals. In Chicago a live born baby that managed to survive an abortion is still able to be killed without liability to the mother or doctor. So your statement does not match up with the law in many places.

    In case you think that is just a single extremist left-wing single wacko saying so, Obama voted 4 times to keep allowing full birth aborion babies to be killed. I'm not sure why people keep claiming they are pro-choice but then lie when they try and explain the stance of the pro-choice movement, but you are one of them.

"I don't believe in sweeping social change being manifested by one person, unless he has an atomic weapon." -- Howard Chaykin

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