
Stargazing technology used to spot cancer - sohkamyung
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Telecommunications_Integrated_Applications/Stargazing_technology_used_to_spot_cancer
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melling
It almost makes you wonder if we should be spending significantly more on
basic science research.

The dividends paid by basic research are difficult to measure.

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specialist
Proton therapy (to treat tumors etc.) is a side benefit of particle
accelerators.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy#History)

Blows my mind.

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BuildTheRobots
Bit of an odd article causing a few wtf moments

> engineers from UK company Adaptix have used technology developed for space
> to produce three-dimensional scans that generate much clearer images.

3D xrays sound a lot like CT scanners.

> Miniaturised, portable and connected through satellites, the machine should
> also allow patients to be scanned in GPs’ surgeries...

Sounds very buzzwordy; there seems to be very few situations where a satellite
uplink would be better than a bit of fibre, especially in fixed premises.

The rest of the article seems like flimflam marketing about general scientific
discovery, nothing else about how this actually works or detects cancer so
clearly other than "The device employs X-ray optics deployed on spacecraft
such as ESA’s XMM-Newton mission, which launched in 1999 and is observing
stars at X-ray wavelengths."

Can anyone comment on what it's actually doing please?

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lifehacked
The breakthrough seems like the clarity of the images, few cameras operate
with as little light as a space based telescope used to view distant objects.
They seems to have paired that tech with tradition CT scanner. So you are not
technically wrong but I'm not sure why those are wtf points, any improvement
is a good improvement when hunting for tumors. I have thought to myself many
times while observing a doctor look at the various scans they take, "wtf,
those images are shit, you sure there is no cancer doc?". Also competition in
this space is excellent, hyping this is better than your next deliver service
startup.

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eecc
I wanted to make a sarcastic comment on Brexit but it’s perhaps too serious to
leave it as a joke :( will this project be shuttered as part of Brexit and
what are the other that risk a similar fate?

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arethuza
It looks like there are non-EU members of ESA (e.g. Turkey and Israel) so
hopefully the UK can stay involved with ESA if Brexit happens:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency#EU_and_t...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency#EU_and_the_European_Space_Agency)

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lifehacked
The small numbers they use to fund projects like these is laughable. If this
is remotely true they should fund it with 1 billion.

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Lowkeyloki
How long before they spot Gemini or Leo?

