When going about your daily life, it’s not likely that particle science naturally crosses your mind – after all, it’s an area of study that is far beyond the understanding or comprehension of the average person, where the brightest minds around push the horizons of technology and our understanding of reality.
However, while these things are true, particle science plays a far larger role in the average person’s life than they might realize – as it is steeply involved in a number of aspects of manufacturing, across a range of industries that produce products that people use on a daily basis.
As technology has continued to improve, manufacturing processes have become ever more precise, efficient, and scientifically advanced – with the need for innovation and improvement in products becoming so important that scientists study materials at the smallest scales to optimize them to perfection for consumers.
Read on to find out more about a few of the hugely significant industries using applications of particle science in their processes.
Medicine
Considering that the Medical and Pharmaceutical industries are so large, it’s not too much of a surprise that they are operating at the forefront of knowledge – after all, it is their job to produce the products that keep us healthy, medicated, and living for longer, and this comes at an expensive price.
Particle science has already left an indelible mark on the medical industry, with machines such as MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) Scanners coming about as a product of particle physics.
When using the powerful magnets installed in the machine, it causes the protons in a patient’s body to align with the magnetic field, which then keeps the protons in place to be subjected to a radiofrequency pulse.
This is not the only application – linear reactors can be used to target cancer tumors without harming the surrounding tissue.
Cosmetics
When it comes to cosmetics, using powders is essentially a given – and where there are powders, there are also particulate.
Particulate is a significant aspect of the design and quality control processes in cosmetics, featuring heavily in the case of foundations, moisturizers, and other beauty products. Depending on the size of the particles, different effects are created in terms of texture and light refraction.
The precision involved in achieving the desired effect from the product is astounding, with measurements being made in the nanometre (nm) range.
Particle Size Analysers like those produced at malvernpanalytical.com can establish the particle size distribution, which affects aspects such as light refraction, which is incredibly important for UV protection and sunscreen.
Quantum Computing
In Quantum Computing, particles play a foundational role in their possibility, with this exciting new field hoping to produce computers with immense and unmatched power – the only issue is that the manufacturer has to be able to produce a machine that can control the states of particles.
If they are able to achieve this, they can have particles behave like the bits in traditional computers – be set to either zero or one, depending on the data. However, they will also be able to access a third, neutral state – allowing the computer to complete millions of calculations simultaneously.