Technology Developed for X-ray Astronomy is Being Adapted to Study Cancer Cells
(Written by Christine Pulliam, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, for Science at the Smithsonian, a website featuring highlights of scientific research at the Smithsonian Institution. )
When it comes to medical research, the obvious payoff is lives saved. In physics research, the payoff usually is more abstract, such as a greater understanding of atomic structure or the mysteries of the universe. But sometimes, spin-offs from basic physics research can yield tangible benefits to humanity in unexpected ways.
Recently, the National Institutes of Health recognized the medical potential in a grant proposal written by astrophysicist Eric Silver of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. Of 21,000 proposals submitted to the NIH Challenge Program, only 200 received funding. One was Silver’s.
Silver is pursuing innovative and interdisciplinary uses of his technique for chemical imaging at the cellular level. Practical benefits may someday come from the prototype instrument he and his colleagues have developed–a combination X-ray detector and electron microscope that will make chemical maps of living cells.