Of the approximately two dozen medical CT scanners scattered throughout Stanford’s main campus and medical centers, two can be found nestled in basement labs of the Green Earth Sciences Buildings.

Of the approximately two dozen medical CT scanners scattered throughout Stanford’s main campus and medical centers, two can be found nestled in basement labs of the Green Earth Sciences Buildings.

The scanner duo is being put to some decidedly off-label uses in research led by Anthony Kovscek, a professor of energy resources engineering at Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). The machines in this case have helped scientists extract oil and gas more efficiently, and are now revealing ways of storing carbon dioxide (CO2) deep underground while the world continues to rely on fossil fuels for energy and transportation.

The motorized tables that would normally slide patients in and out of the scanners’ openings instead support machines made from a daunting array of connected pressure vessels, nozzles and gauges shrouded beneath wires and tubing. The larger of the two scanners is about the length of a person and looks like something devised by a mad scientist to power a time-traveling DeLorean. “I’ll still sometimes say ‘Whoa’ when I see it,” said Muhammad Almajid, a graduate student in Kovscek’s lab.

Read more at Stanford University

Image: Research scientist Tae Wook Kim, left, and professor Tony Kovscek check the status of an experiment in the CT scanner.

(Image credit: L.A. Cicero)