[extropy-chat] Treating Cancer with Beams of Anti-Matter

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

>From Slashdot: According to this Economist article scientists at CERN are
using beams of antimatter to destroy cancer cells. The basic idea is that
you make some anti-protons, whizz them round in a accelerator to get them
moving at a decent rate then fire them at living tissue. They burrow down to
the desired depth, find a friendly proton and do a spot of mutual
anihilation, releasing sufficient energy in the process to kill a cell or
two. The trick is that matter/anti-matter anihilation is a bit like nuclear
fission, it does not work if the particles are moving too fast. The
anti-proton has to be moving slowly enough to get pulled into the orbit of
some atomic nucleus and actually collide. This allows the treatment to be
fine tuned so it only affects the tissues at a very specific depth - unlike
traditional therapies which zap everything in the line of fire.
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