Absolutely. In fact, Lauterbur suggested using NMR for imaging before Damadian did. Damadian's 1971 paper made no reference to imaging, but claimed to be able to identify cancerous tissue by relaxation time measurement -- a claim that has turned out to be incorrect except for a few special cases. A good summary is given in Donald P. Hollis's book Abusing Cancer Science (1987, ISBN 0942033159). Damadian's claim to deserve a Nobel Prize is, as far as I can see, utter nonsense.
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Absolutely. In fact, Lauterbur suggested using NMR for imaging before Damadian did. Damadian's 1971 paper made no reference to imaging, but claimed to be able to identify cancerous tissue by relaxation time measurement -- a claim that has turned out to be incorrect except for a few special cases. A good summary is given in Donald P. Hollis's book Abusing Cancer Science (1987, ISBN 0942033159). Damadian's claim to deserve a Nobel Prize is, as far as I can see, utter nonsense.