December 26, 2007, 2:00 pm
Proton Therapy
By Henry Woodbury
The New York Times explains proton radiation therapy with a superb visual explanation. In addition to describing how the technology works, the visualization tells a second story — why proton therapy is so expensive.
One thing the Times doesn’t do (at least in the online version) is present the visualization on the same page as the photograph that accompanies the article.
Presented together, both visual explanation and photograph gain in impact. Compare the size of the human figure and nozzle in each image. Then look at the photograph and imagine all the superstructure you do not see.
