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A comment on High dimensional geometry is transforming the MRI industry(2017) [pdf].

Re:High dimensional geometry is transforming the MRI industr... by Vexs on Friday May 15, 2026 @12:20PM (#48150489)
It's worth reading this one to the end- the point of this paper isn't about the math involved, it's that this math was the result of the federal funding of maths research.

> The cost-benefit ratio of Mathematical research has been off-scale. The Federal government spends about $250 Million/year on mathematics research. Yet in the US there are 40 Million MRI scans per year, incurring tens of billions in Medicaid, Medicare and other Federal costs. The financial benefits of the roughly 10-to-1 productivity improvements now being seen in MRI could soon far exceed the annual NSF budget for mathematics research

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Re:High dimensional geometry is transforming the MRI industr... by rtkwe on Friday May 15, 2026 @01:56PM (#48151724)
It's the thing people don't get when they see odd studies being funded and try to judge if they're worthy of being funded. Either it's just they don't understand where the study fits into a larger problem or simply that esoteric studies sometimes leads to surprising findings that are far more useful than anyone could reasonable predict.
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Re:High dimensional geometry is transforming the MRI industr... by finghin on Friday May 15, 2026 @03:12PM (#48152614)
It’s probably more
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Re:High dimensional geometry is transforming the MRI industr... by dooglius on Saturday May 16, 2026 @12:37PM (#48161684)
It would be instructive to actually look at the studies in question and whether or not they were odd or esoteric.
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Re:High dimensional geometry is transforming the MRI industr... by CGMthrowaway on Friday May 15, 2026 @02:07PM (#48151837)
Sounds more like the point is that math research has high ROI compared to most federally funded research
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Re:High dimensional geometry is transforming the MRI industr... by WorkerBee28474 on Friday May 15, 2026 @02:27PM (#48152048)
As the Soviets knew, apparatus are expensive but pencils are cheap.
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Re:High dimensional geometry is transforming the MRI industr... by lostlogin on Friday May 15, 2026 @05:00PM (#48153747)
But have the scans got cheaper? It’s possibly that acceleration techniques have prevented the cost being greater, but key parts of the cost are not getting cheaper. Staffing costs are just so high.

Pricing a scan based on scanner time doesn’t really work.

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