Pathological calcifications and selected examples at the medicine–solid-state physics interface

Medical treatments and diagnosis now concern concepts, techniques or nanomaterials previously the domain of solid-state physics. Examples of solid-state physics techniques applied to medicine are magnetism, Auger electron spectroscopy, nanometre-scale metallic clusters and synchrotron radiation. Here, we summarize the research into these phenomena to explain the strong interaction between solid-state physics and medicine, with its current tremendous development.