Heavy ions are riveting in radiation biophysics, particularly in the areas of radiotherapy and space radiation protection. Accelerated charged particles can indeed penetrate deeply in the human body to sterilize tumors, exploiting the favorable depth-dose distribution of ions compared to conventional X rays. Conversely, the high biological effectiveness in inducing late effects presents a hazard for manned space exploration. Even after half a century of accelerator-based experiments, clinical applications and flight research, these two topics remain both fascinating and baffling. Heavy-ion therapy is very expensive, and despite the clinical success it remains controversial. Research on late radiation morbidity in spaceflight led to a reduction in uncertainty, but also pointed to new risks previously underestimated, such as possible damage to the central nervous system. Recently, heavy ions have also been used in other, unanticipated biomedical fields, such as treatment of heart arrhythmia or inactivation of viruses for vaccine development. Heavy-ion science nicely merges physics and biology and remains an extraordinary research field for the 21st century.

重离子在辐射生物物理学中引人注目，特别是在放射治疗和空间辐射防护领域。与传统的X射线相比，利用有利的离子深度剂量分布，加速后的带电粒子确实可以深入人体内部对肿瘤进行消毒。相反，诱导后期效应的高生物有效性对载人航天探索构成了危害。即使经过半个世纪的基于加速器的实验，临床应用和飞行研究，这两个主题仍然令人着迷和莫名其妙。重离子疗法非常昂贵，尽管临床成功，但仍存在争议。太空飞行中后期辐射发病率的研究导致不确定性的降低，但同时也指出了先前被低估的新风险，例如可能会对中枢神经系统造成损害。最近，重离子也已用于其他未曾预料到的生物医学领域，例如治疗心律不齐或灭活病毒以开发疫苗。重离子科学很好地融合了物理学和生物学，仍然是21世纪非凡的研究领域。