X-ray of a hand
It’s been more than 100 years since the first x-ray picture of a hand was taken, probably by the creators of the very first series of unending medical soap Grey’s Anatomy. Ever since, physics has played a vital role in medicine. Thanks to physics, today you can now have scans of your brain using huge magnets (MRI) or antimatter (PET), monitor your heart using an ECG, have laser surgery to sort out your vision, or treat cancers by zapping them with X-rays.
Few people go to hospital, or even their GP, without an imaging investigation or the application of an electronic medical device. Physicists and Engineers have revolutionised medicine and are developing ever better ways to diagnose and treat illness that will help save lives and keep us living longer in the future.
In this zone there is a scientist using light to treat cancer, one working on new ways of imaging the brain to pick out age related diseases, and another one using high tech to get amazing images of our arteries and veins in our bodies to help diagnose problems so the doctors can try to fix them. There is also one scientist working in a hospital using radiation to treat cancer, and another one looking at new ways of detecting cancer.