How Physics Can Solve Crime And Help To Cure Cancer
Zapperz has a nice little rant, after linking to a story that presents an order-of-magnitude solution to some trivial situation.
I also received a rather nasty and profanity-laced “comment” to the blog, which basically asked why us “MF’s” are wasting out time and not using our brains to cure cancer
Short answer: Chill, bro. “We” (meaning some physicists) are, but OOM calculations are only the beginning of such issues, whereas they were the end of the “how much energy does it take to do X” problem.
X-rays (and gamma) and electrons are a common treatment for various types of cancer. Other particles have been tried for decades. protons have advantages in many common situations. However, after the biology is considered, I would probably want to be treated with Carbon ions.
This is my day job (well photon and electron treatments), and I am a physicist.