breast and skin cancer tagged posts

Techniques developed by astronomers could help in the fight against breast and skin cancer. A large part of astronomy depends on the detection and analysis of light. For example, scientists study the light scattered, absorbed and re-emitted in clouds of gas and dust, obtaining information on their interior.

Despite the vast differences in scale, the processes that light undergoes when travelling through the human body are very similar to those seen in space. And when things go wrong – when tissue becomes cancerous – that change should show up.

In the UK, nearly 60,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and 12,000 die...