A new measurement of the proton particle shows that it is 0.00000000000003 millimetres smaller than previously thought. It may seem irrelevant, but physicists are freaking out. I hope this doesn’t mean we are going to cease to exist anytime soon. More »
If bigger equals better, than Varian Medical System’s Cyclotron, designed to administer proton therapy, is the best damned cancer-killing machine ever built. The device is a 250 mega-electron volt proton accelerator, and it’s so large that it requires its own building. It’s designed to very precisely target tumors for radiation therapy, as protons have a “much shorter and predictable range of energy delivery than photons.” I’m not sure I fully understand it, but it sure does look impressive, doesn’t it? [Varian via Medgadget]
