Category: Societal Applications
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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…
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LHC inducted into TIME’s Best Inventions Hall of Fame
TIME announced this week that CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is one of the 25 inventions that will be inducted into the TIME Best Inventions Hall of Fame. Every year, TIME hunts down the most exciting innovations to produce their annual list of the Best Inventions. To mark the list’s 25th anniversary, they have narrowed down the previous…
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CERN accelerates medical applications
CERN’s CLEAR facility investigates novel medical applications of electron beams and the resilience of electronics in space. A short walk away on the CERN site, MEDICIS is developing
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CERN and fusion energy, advancing together
On 10 September 2025, CERN and Fusion for Energy (F4E) signed a major framework collaboration agreement to advance scientific research and technological development
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International students complete challenge to find innovative medical solutions with accelerator technologies
A group of international students has successfully completed a challenge to come up with unique ways in which particle accelerator technologies can be used to solve some of healthcare’s most pressing issues today, as part of the I.FAST project’s fourth Challenge Based Innovation (CBI) event.
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IPAC 2025: NIMMS Showcases Medical Accelerator Innovations
The NIMMS (Next Ion Medical Machine Study) team from CERN made a strong impression at IPAC 2025, the world’s premier conference on particle accelerator technology. Hosted annually, IPAC brings together experts from research, and industry to explore cutting-edge developments in accelerator science.
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Electron Accelerators: How CERN is Driving Their Use Within and Beyond Physics
Hidden next to the PS, the CERN Linear Electron Accelerator for Research (CLEAR) is running a unique experimental facility, designed to explore and advance accelerator technologies with a wide range of scientific and industrial applications.