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Medical physics

Medical physics

Ionizing radiation: its biological impacts and how it is used to treat disease

13 Mar 2025 Hamish Johnston

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features Ileana Silvestre Patallo, a medical physicist at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, and Ruth McLauchlan, consultant radiotherapy physicist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

In a wide-ranging conversation with Physics World’s Tami Freeman, Patallo and McLauchlan explain how ionizing radiation such as X-rays and proton beams interact with our bodies and how radiation is being used to treat diseases including cancer.

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