Physics aids new medical techniques

Since the discovery of X-rays, fundamental physics has been a source of ideas for radiography and medical imaging. A new imaging method firmly rooted in particle physics was chosen by Time magazine as one of its "Inventions of the Year 2000". The award-winning invention in the medical science category was a scanner that combined the advantages of computer tomography with positron emission tomography. The use of these techniques, which depend on detecting and analysing electromagnetic radiation (X-rays or gamma rays respectively), show that detection techniques from particle physics have made, and continue to make, essential contributions to medical science. (0 refs).