What is Biomedical Physics?

What is Biophysics?

Traditional biophysics has concentrated on determining the structures of biological molecules such as proteins and DNA using techniques such as X ray diffraction. There are now many more physical techniques available and under development that are able to provide insights into molecular dynamics and allowing us, for the first time to observe physical processes in the living cell. These developments are promoting the growth of research activities at the boundaries between physical and biological science and medicine.

What is Medical Physics?

Medical Physics is the application of experimental and theoretical physics techniques to medical diagnosis and treatment. The subject initially grew out of the involvement of physicists in the use of ionising radiations in both diagnostic and therapeutic applications and many physicists are still employed in the Hospital Service in this capacity. MRI is assuming an increasingly prominent place both in routine diagnosis and in research and other new techniques are under development, involving many areas of physics and close collaboration between physicists and clinicians.