A novel instrument developed at the University of Fribourg with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation promises to open up new perspectives in cardiology by enabling doctors to record the heart's magnetic field. Thanks to this new method - which has been dubbed magnetocardiography - it is possible to detect heart problems at a very early stage. Unlike current installations, which use helium-cooled superconductive sensors, the Fribourg group's technology operates at normal room temperature. Moreover, it is significantly less expensive. As a result, magnetocardiography, a technology which is currently only used in a small number of medical research centres, could fall within the reach of ordinary hospitals.