Beschleunigertechnologie und Partikeltherapie in Deutschland im 20. Jahrhundert

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Carsten Reinhardt
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: from 2010 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 180980506

The aim of the project is the historical analysis of a research technology of immediate interest in the present, the accelerator technology, and the concomitant therapeutical concept of the treatment of cancer, the particle therapy. The objects of research are the developments leading to the current actuality and the technological realization of particle therapy. They are scrutinized from the perspective of history of science and technology. The project considers state-funded research (Universities, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute, Max-Planck-Institute, major research institutions) and industrial research, analyzes the structure of its cooperativity and the strategies leading to the implementation of a large-scale technology developed and applied by high-energy physics in a dedicated subdiscipline of medicine, the radiooncology. From a technical point of view, accelerators, like betatrons, cyclotrons and linear accelerators, are the objects of interest. In connection with medical applications developments in neighbouring subjects, like computer-, vacuum- and high frequency technology will be integrated in the study. With regard to radiooncology, we distinguish three periods of development: 1. an early period of technological establishment (1928-1946), 2. a period of implementation of compact therapy systems (1946-1980), and 3. a period of complex therapy facilities (from 1980 to the present day). Starting point of the study is the work of Rolf Wideröe on the first properly functioning double-stage linear accelerator (1928) and his theoretical considerations about circular accelerators. Finally the establishment of the first combined proton and heavy ion therapy facility in Europe in Heidelberg and the failure of similar units in Marburg and Kiel are the objects of interest. In addition, the project aims for an essential contribution to the historical treatment of the research technology concept. For this purpose we draw on the terminology of Terry Shinn. The participating actors developing and disseminating the technology can be analyzed and characterized in part as research technologists in accordance to Shinn, or as members of an interdisciplinary research community, assembled of representatives of industry, academic physics, and medical facilities, later expanded by politicians and representatives of the state. It is important to discern that the formation of a stable transversal field, which, so much for the thesis, is in place to the present day, can be traced back to the era of the first medical applications of X-rays. This transversal field with its structures and its inherent dynamics of development is a core element of the analysis performed within the project.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants