Applications and society
Technologies and interdisciplinary applications
Continuing research and development efforts in high-technology
areas such as electronics, computers, and networking are necessary
for the construction of new particle detectors and accelerators.
Developments from research in nuclear and subnuclear physics
have an impact on fields of public interest such as information
technology and medicine.
Moreover, the INFN collaborates with industry for the fabrication
of high-technology components needed in the course of its research,
giving rise to a spontaneous mechanism by which technical knowledge
is shared, which in turn helps to increase the competitiveness
of the domestic industrial sector. The placement of young men
and women who have gained experience at INFN facilities into
positions at private-sector firms represents yet another vehicle
for the transfer of technical knowledge. These young people
bring along not only the knowledge that they have acquired,
but also the mental perspectives characteristic of research
professionals.
For several years, the INFN has collaborated with various Italian
hospitals on projects for the application of technologies typically
used in fundamental research to challenges related to medical
diagnostics.
The experience gained in the areas of electronics and detector
technology, for example, are being put to use in mammographic
and scintimammographic examinations for the early detection
of breast cancer. In the CALMA project, a system for the acquisition
and analysis of mammographic images has been developed which
guarantees the identification of lesions in detail. This system
potentially offers automated support for the early detection
of tumors because of the low incidence of false positives, which
represent a crucial problem with screening techniques.
Together with the Policlinico di Roma, the INFN has developed
a prototype scintimammography procedure which has discerned
tumors of the breast smaller than five millimeters in size.
The technique is based on the detection of radiation emitted
from antitumoral medications treated with a radioactive source.
The Southern Laboratories, in collaboration with the Departments
of Ophthalmology and Radiology of the University of Catania,
are developing techniques for the treatment of eye tumors. The
techniques developed as part of the CATANA project make use
of accelerated proton beams from the Superconducting Cyclotron.
In yet another applied use of modern technology developed for
nuclear physics, the Legnaro Laboratories are studying instruments
to allow the removal of mines in territories that have been
subject to local military conflicts in recent years. In particular,
these instruments will allow the minesweeping of much broader
swaths of terrain in much less time than is possible using traditional
techniques.
Nuclear technology and artistic preservation
Over the last several years, the INFN has assumed a prominent
role in the field of non-destructive techniques for the safeguarding
and preservation of our cultural heritage.
International attention has been given to results obtained at
the Florence Division, where Galileo manuscripts have been dated
and the pigments and inks on illuminated manuscripts from the
Middle Ages have been analyzed. Also at Florence, the INFN,
in collaboration with the University of Florence and the CNR,
is opening a laboratory for the further development of investigative
methods already in use. Knowledge from the field of nuclear
physics is put to use in techniques such as IBA (Ion Beam Analysis)
and AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry). In the first technique,
the composition of the materials used in a work of art can be
determined by bombarding a sample with accelerated particle
beams and measuring the radiation emitted. The second technique
involves the detection of rare isotopes in a sample, and has
been used most notably to date artifacts by their concentrations
of carbon 14.
Not only the Florence Division, but also the Southern Laboratories
(the LANDIS Laboratory) and the Naples Division make use of
these techniques, following complementary methodologies. At
the LANDIS Laboratory, in collaboration with the CNR, a variant
of the IBA technique has been used which takes advantage of
naturally occurring radioactive sources instead of accelerators,
while at Naples, a system has been developed in which accelerators
are used to detect the presence of carbon, with the goal of
dating archeological artifacts.
Computers and networking: from the Web to the Grid
The organizations that represent the community of academics
and scientific research in Italy have formed the Group for the
Coordination of Research Networks (Gruppo di Armonizzazione
delle Reti di Ricerca, or GARR). The principal institutional
responsibilities of the GARR include the furnishing of high-bandwidth
network services to the community of its members, and connections
to European and worldwide research networks as the aim of the
GARR-B project. The INFN is responsible for the technical aspects
and the management of this project, which at the moment connects
the sites indicated on the map. The INFN can draw from its experience
in information networking and database management, which are
fundamental to research in particle physics.
The requirements in terms of the processing, management, and
exchange of data among physicists working in the field led to
the invention of the World Wide Web at CERN in Geneva, granting
Internet access to millions of people.
The next-generation experiments planned for the LHC will have
to handle enormous quantities of data, and will therefore require
new approaches in information technology. The INFN is the Italian
partner in GRID, the European project coordinated by CERN, in
Geneva, which aims at the implementation of the second-generation
information network.
The name GRID is intended to connote an electrical power grid,
to which one connects without having to choose from which power
station to draw energy. On the GRID network in the coming years,
it will be possible to execute programs that require large amounts
of computational power without having to explicitly choose a
computer on which to perform these calculations. The database
available to researchers will have a capacity of 1000 terabytes,
the equivalent of a tower of CD-ROM’s almost two kilometers
high. These resources will allow the confrontation of the requirements
in terms of the storage and management of growing quantities
of data produced in research in the field of particle physics.
The computational grid will be an ideal instrument for use in
other disciplines as well, for which projects are already under
development in various countries.
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