ICE

This futuristic-looking building is ICE - the new Imaging Centre of Excellence at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH). We were invited to a guided tour of the imaging centre, at the heart of which is Scotland's most powerful magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Drinks and nibbles - and surreptitious clocking of who were MB/ChB grads and who, like me, were rather less relevant MAs, not to mention the vintage of each guest - were followed by presentations by the head of Glasgow University's College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, Prof Dame Anna Dominiczak and  the university's professor of clinical imaging, Keith Muir.

We saw the massive scanner in its specially-shielded room, behind the equally special toughened windows (the glass rippled as you looked at it) and heard the story of its arrival and its potential. I don't pretend that I understood every word, but these people are wonderfully enthusiastic and proud about this development and of the way in which Glasgow is forging ahead as a world leader in medical research. 

You can read the story of the 7 Tesla MRI scanner and see its arrival at the hospital here. It doesn't, however, tell you how proud I am of my university and the city of my birth.