Category: Societal Applications
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Love is in the air at CERN’s HEARTS facility
This Valentine’s Day, CERN shines a light on its HEARTS testing facility, loved by those who recently tested their components for the harsh conditions of space. Late last year, the Large Hadron Collider ended a record-breaking year by colliding lead ions. The HEARTS@CERN facility took advantage of this period to test radiation effects with lead…
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Advancing Access to Radiotherapy – STELLA Project Concludes 18-Month Phase
The STELLA (Smart Technologies to Extend Lives with Linear Accelerators) project has completed an 18-month research and system design phase funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Led by the International Cancer Expert Corps (ICEC) and CERN, with academic partners from the Universities of Cambridge, Lancaster, and Oxford, the project focuses on addressing long-standing gaps…
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Advancing cancer therapy with next-gen radionuclides
Nuclear medicine uses radionuclides for imaging and therapeutic purposes. These unstable nuclei decay by emitting radiation, which will damage or destroy the cancer cells. Over the past decade, the “theranostic” approach has emerged, combining imaging and therapy to tailor treatment to the individual patient.
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Catalysing Impact: Superconductors as an opportunity for Science & Society
As the two-day event “Catalysing Impact – Superconductivity for Global Challenges” drew to a close, the atmosphere at CERN was one of shared purpose and optimism. Held on 1–2 December 2025 in the Main Auditorium, the event gathered leading researchers, industry representatives, investors and policymakers to explore how collaborations in superconducting technologies can advance particle…
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Superconductivity for addressing global challenges
A CERN event brings together researchers, industry leaders and decision makers to accelerate the use of superconducting technologies for societal applications
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The future of particle therapy
When targeting tumours, protons and heavy ions offer distinct advantages compared to conventional X-ray radiotherapy. PTCOG president Marco Durante describes an exciting future for the technology and shares his vision for closer international cooperation between medicine, academia and industry.
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Biology at the Bragg peak
In 1895, mere months after Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays, doctors explored their ability to treat superficial tumours. Today, the X-rays are generated by electron linacs rather than vacuum tubes, but the principle is the same, and radiotherapy is part of most cancer treatment programmes.
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20 years of Medipix3: Pixel Detectors Transforming Physics, Medicine and Beyond
Two decades after its inception, the Medipix3 collaboration marks 20 years of innovation in hybrid pixel detector technology, a journey that began at CERN and now spans more than 30 institutes worldwide. Based on the same technolgy used to detect individual particles in high-energy physics experiments, the Medipix family of chips has evolved into one…
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Get to know why CERN’s MEDICIS work is so important!
CERN’s MEDICIS facility is taking a leading role in addressing one of nuclear medicine’s most pressing challenges: the global shortage of actinium-225 (Ac-225), a promising isotope for targeted alpha therapy. Ac-225 has shown remarkable potential in treating advanced cancers by delivering highly localized doses of radiation that can destroy tumor cells while minimizing damage to…
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CERN’s CLEAR Facility Extends Its Mission with Five New Years of Research
In the vast maze of CERN’s accelerator complex, it is easy to get lost among the countless LINACs, synchrotrons, and beamlines. Recently, however, one facility deserves the spotlight with the success of its past five years of research and a newly granted extension. Nestled within CERN’s Meyrin site, the CERN Linear Electron Accelerator for Research…