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pjmlp 2 hours ago

Cancer treatment goes back to particle physics research at CERN, the Web was born there, cloud was previously known as Grid Computing at CERN,

Three examples of how humanity would not be as we know it today without CERN.

As Alumni, there are many other changes that trace back to CERN.

We don't sit only on the H1 beer garden and go skiing.

mikkupikku 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I understand how linacs and even small compact syncrotrons can have practical medical and industrial applications, and I understand that in the past CERN has developed technology and produced research which is relevant to hardon therapy.

What I don't understand, and maybe you can clarify, is how the very largest gargantuan accelerators can ever have practical relevance. How can effects and products which can only be studied with accelerators that are many miles large ever have application in hospitals unless those hospitals are also many miles large? Not going to lie, I get "NASA invented Tang" vibes whenever this subject comes up; like the medical applications of small accelerators are obvious and parsable to the public, so they are used to sell the public on accelerators the size of small countries.

pjmlp 27 minutes ago | parent [-]

Because of the engineering effort required to build such systems, that no one has built before, means there is a gigantic amount of R&D discoveries that can be eventually applied in other fields outside particle physics.

Mechanical, electronic, informatics, chemistry, physics,...

Hence why CERN eventually created an industry collaboration office, responsible for finding business partners that would like to make a business out of such discoveries.

https://knowledgetransfer.web.cern.ch/activities-services/co...

bonsai_spool an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

> Cancer treatment goes back to particle physics

Are you speaking about proton therapy? I don’t think there’s any evidence that works better than alternatives

pjmlp 44 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

What matters is that exists, and is another possibility for treatments.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4724719/

onetokeoverthe an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

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