Nuclear medicine
| Smaller particle accelerators, known as cyclotrons, can help in detecting and treating cancer.
Cyclotrons can make nuclear medicines (also called radiopharmaceuticals) which are used in PET scans, and other medical treatments. |
 |
There’s a cyclotron in, or close to, most major hospitals in Australia.
 |
This cyclotron is in the Positron Emission Tomography Centre at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Western Australia. |
The trouble with antimatter…
Even if you have your own particle accelerator, it’s still difficult to make antimatter, and it’s even harder to store it long enough to use it. Whenever a particle comes into contact with its antiparticle, both particles are entirely converted into energy: they annihilate.>>
