9/9/2023 0 Comments Physic particlesProton beams, on the other hand, do comparatively little damage to tissue in front of a tumor and none to tissue behind it, thanks to the way protons lose energy as they pass through material, including the human body. These two varieties of photons, or particles of light, damage healthy tissue both in front of and behind the tumor that’s the intended target. Treatment facilities have also multiplied, from a dozen or so at the beginning of the century to more than 100 today.ĭoctors can tune beams of protons to precisely destroy specific targets, usually cancerous tumors, without harming nearby organs-unlike x-rays and gamma rays, which have historically been the go-to beams for cancer therapy. In the two decades since, the number has exploded to about 200,000 patients worldwide. But by the early 2000s, fewer than 10,000 people had benefited from it. Proton therapy for cancer was pioneered in the 1950s. “Right now the waiting lists are well over a month,” she says. The logistic challenge of providing the therapy to people at a reasonable cost is the primary reason patients still turn to other options. When pulled out of atoms and sped up in particle accelerators, they become precise cancer-fighting tools that are safer and more effective than more common x-ray and gamma-ray treatments, according to Nancy Lee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Along with neutrons and electrons, they’re components of the atoms that make up us and everything around us. Researchers are increasingly turning to protons, neutrons, muons and neutrinos as tools for precisely targeting tricky tumors, probing fossils and volcanoes and revealing the hidden structures of Earth, among an ever expanding list of applications. These tiny bits of matter have long been interesting to physicists seeking to understand the underlying laws of nature, but they are proving to have much more practical uses as well. The archeological surprise is just one of many feats that would be difficult or impossible without subatomic particles. The scientists had set out to see if neutrons-the building blocks of atomic nuclei, along with protons-could offer better images of fossils than x-rays and made the startling discovery that a croc in the Cretaceous period had eaten a previously unknown species of juvenile ornithopod dinosaur before it died. An ancient crocodile’s last meal might never have come to light were it not for researchers deciding to scan the rock-embedded fossil with a beam of neutrons.
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