RESEARCHERS at a Scots university have created the brightest ever gamma ray in a breakthrough that could create new possibilities for cancer therapy.
The ray, more than a thousand-billion times more brilliant than the sun, was produced by physicists from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
The beam could be used in medical imaging, radiotherapy and radioisotope production, as well as the monitoring of stored nuclear waste.
“This could act as a powerful tool in medicine for cancer therapy,” said Professor Dino Jaroszynski, who led the research team who made the discovery.
The team found that ultra-short laser pulses interact with ionised gas to give off a beam so intense it can pass through 20cm of lead and takes 1.5m of concrete to be stopped.
Professor Jaroszynski added: “It is a great breakthrough, which could make the probing of very dense matter easier, and so allow us to monitor nuclear fusion capsules imploding.
“To prove this we have imaged very thin wires – 25 microns thick – with gamma rays and produced very clear images using a new method called phase-contrast imaging.
“Matter illuminated by gamma rays only cast a very weak shadow and therefore are invisible. Phase-contrast imaging is the only way to render these transparent objects visible.”
The scientists were joined in the research by others from Glasgow University and the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon, Portugal.
The study showed the short laser pulses used to create the ray, essentially a type of X-ray, are ideal for lab-based study of the nucleus of atoms.
Professor Jaroszynski added: “In nature, if you accelerate charged particles, such as electrons, they radiate. We trapped particles in a cavity of ions trailing an intense laser pulse and accelerated these to high energies. This enabled the gamma ray photons to outshine any other earthbound source.
“The accelerator we use is a new type called a laser-plasma wakefield accelerator, which uses high-power lasers and ionised gas to accelerate charged particles to very high energies – thus shrinking a conventional accelerator, which is 100m long, to one which fits in your hand.”
The experiments were carried out at the Central Laser Facility at Rutherford Appleton laboratory, run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
Just last month, scientists at Glasgow University discovered a drug that could be a cure for several common cancers.
It is hoped that anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine can be used to tackle breast, lung, skin and bowel cancers.
And in June this year, researchers at Glasgow’s Beatson Institute made a breakthrough in slowing down the growth and development of tumours.
Experts revealed that protein collagen can act as “scaffolding” around cancerous tumours.
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