The interaction between physics and medicine, at the centre of the debate of this year, demonstrated to be particularly fruitful since subatomic physics was born, and it strengthened itself as nuclear and elementary particle physics advanced. It is due to the dialogue between these two disciplines the employment of essential diagnostics and treatment tools, as the X rays, the magnetic resonance and many others, up to the most modern strategies to fight tumours. The cooperation between physics and medicine has been of great impact not only on the society in general, but also on the development of some industrial sectors. Today this interdisciplinary field seems to be very interesting letting preview that the fellowship between the two areas will still give many fruits. During the meeting in Erice, the arguments that will be prevalently discussed are the adrotherapy (the use of particles beams to destroy tumour tissues), the employment of particle detectors as tools for medical diagnosis and the possible applications of the grid (the computational network that particle physicists all over the world are developing at the moment and that will have very higher potentialities than those of actual internet) in medicine.
The techniques developed for nuclear and sub-nuclear physics have applications, sometimes similar, in many other fields. So in Erice the interdisciplinary interactions that aim to the protection of the environment and artistic assets will be also discussed. The debate will involve of course the cooperation between physics and industry and the fact that the development and the construction of the necessary tools for research is a unique opportunity to improve the skills of industries that ai
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Contact: Barbara Gallavotti
Barbara.Gallavotti@Presid.infn.it
39-066-868-162
National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN)
2-Apr-2004