We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. The video above compiles some of the most striking videos captured by an MRI machine, including a quasi-NSFW clip of a couple having sex. Magnetic Resonance Imaging has been commercially available since the s, but more recent improvements in resolution and computing have made it possible to build videos from the scans, and even provide technicians with detailed real-time moving images. MRI scanners generate an image of the human body by mapping the position of hydrogen protons, which are abundant in the water molecules and the fat in our tissues.

The tradition began in , originally as a one-off attempt to bring a bit of levity to the journal for the holidays. While the papers selected for inclusion evinced a quirky sense of humor, they were also peer-reviewed and scientifically rigorous. Some of the more notable offerings over the last 37 years included the side effects of sword-swallowing; a thermal imaging study on reindeer offering a possible explanation for why Rudolph's nose was so red; and an analysis of the superior antioxidant properties of martinis that are shaken, not stirred. Conclusion: "'s profound state of health may be due, at least in part, to compliant bartenders. But by far the most widely read Christmas issue paper was a study that produced the very first MRI images of a human couple having sex.

In its first year, it picked up the IgNobel prize for medicine, and has since become one of the most downloaded BMJ articles of all time. In celebration of the article's anniversary, his thoughts are published in a special feature in The BMJ. Image source: Dickinson RL.