Hounsfield (Godfrey Hounsfield)

Godfrey Hounsfield was an engineer who invented the CT (computed tomography) scanner, a medical imaging technology. The Hounsfield unit (HU) is a measurement scale he developed to quantify tissue density in these scans. It assigns numerical values to different tissues based on how much they block X-ray beams. For example, air has a low HU, appearing dark, while bones have a high HU, appearing bright. This scale helps doctors distinguish between various tissues and identify abnormalities, making CT scans a powerful diagnostic tool.