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Asked by samuel to James, Freya, Daniel on 15 Jun 2015.
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Daniel Hewson answered on 15 Jun 2015:
This is a really difficult question, because many parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are used to do many different and important things. Many sections of the electromagnetic spectrum are used in medicine. Some of the people I work with use infra-red light to image cells in the body without taking them out. This will make cancer detection and treatment more effective and faster. Others are doing similar things with visible light and terahertz radiation. X-rays are also used to image the body to detect problems.
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Freya Wilson answered on 15 Jun 2015:
That’s a really hard question!
So physics is where it all started- that’s how we know all the fundamental stuff about electromagnetics and how it behaves- so without that we wouldn’t have anything else. But Biology and Chemistry is where lots of the applications are and the things that actually directly affect humans. Like, physics knowledge meant x-rays became a thing, but it is doctors who use them for imaging the body.
There is a lot of cross over- someone I work with is using lasers to image tissues for tissue engineering. She is the physicist behind it all, but it will eventually involve some bioloigists and chemists who make the tissues, and ultimately they will be used to make sure that artificial organ transplants (still a few years off yet!!) are safe and to better understand how biology works.
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James Gilbert answered on 15 Jun 2015:
Some people say ‘physics is the only true science’ – ha! But that’s a bit of an arrogant viewpoint.
Electromagnetism is definitely a physical phnomenon, but in terms of using our knowledge of electromagnetics then maybe chemistry.. Spectroscopy (analysing the EM spectrum of light) is how you identify what chemical elements are in something. Chemists do this all the time. And so do astronomers!
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