Georges Charpak revolutionises particle detection

Georges Charpak poses with a wire chamber detector. (Image: CERN)
Georges Charpak poses with a wire chamber detector. (Image: CERN)

CERN physicist Georges Charpak invents the multiwire proportional chamber, a device which revolutionises the recording of particle collisions by capturing them electronically instead of optically. This innovation transforms particle physics, dramatically increasing the number of collisions that can be analysed and allowing rare phenomena to be studied. Charpak receives the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physics for this invention.


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