Chinese scientists are hunting for the human soul and are building the world’s most powerful MRI machine to find it.

The £100 million piece of equipment will look deep into the human brain to learn more about its complex structure.

Many people claim the soul is what separates a human from animals, but evidence for its existence has never been found.

Scientists say the project ‘will revolutionise brain studies’ and may assist in creating future treatments for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

The £100 million piece of equipment will look deep into the human brain to understand its complex structure in pursuit of the human soul. Scientists say the project ‘will revolutionise brain studies’ (stock)

The project is being run by the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology.

Its budget is greater than the world’s largest telescope, also in China, called the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST).

‘It will show us a different world with phenomenon unseen before … maybe even the soul,’ one scientist told the SCMP.

Another expert added: ‘We may for the first time capture a full picture of human consciousness or even the essence of life itself.

‘Then we can define them and explain how they work in precise physical terms – just like Newton and Einstein defined and explained the universe.’

The machine has yet to be built but scientists say it would likely help in observing various chemicals such as sodium, phosphorus and potassium.

These elements are crucial in brain function and are involved with passing impulses and messages through the different neurons.

Understanding how they move and operate in greater detail can also be used to learn more about consciousness and cognitive diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer.

Chinese scientists are hunting for the human soul and are building a cutting edge MRI machine to find it. It is designed to provide a resolution 1,000 times greater than existing MRI scanners and will allow scientists to study the role of chemicals in the brain (stock)

It is designed to provide a resolution 1,000 times greater than existing MRI scanners which can visualise objects up to 1 mm across.

But, not all in the scientific community the endeavour will be successful.

Professor He Rongqiao, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, was sceptical about the project.

He said: ‘What is consciousness? There is not even a scientific definition.

‘If you can’t even define it, how do you know what you see is what you are looking for?’