Frontier diagnostics

From resonances to quantum sensors: the medicine of the future starts today

In Thales laboratories in Palaiseau, quantum physics promises diagnostic devices hundreds of times more accurate, as small as a pen, capable of reading electrical discharges in the brain

16 July 2025

3' min read

How many times have we been amazed by the size of MRI machines? Cumbersome and annoying, these magnificent diagnostic tools manage to analyse the structures in our bodies with great precision, giving doctors a complete and realistic picture of our health without invasive examinations. Such precision is the result of one of the first civilian uses of quantum science, the most advanced frontier of physics committed to understanding what the world of the extremely small is and how it works, and a field that promises wonders in the coming decades.

On the occasion of the Year of Quantum Science, we went to Palaiseau, just outside Paris, to visit the Thales laboratories dedicated precisely to research in this branch of physics. Thales is a company that has a long history in the field of sensor technology in the military, civil and aerospace sectors, and the application of the latest advances seems to be able to multiply the performance of today's machines: 'By resorting to quantum physics,' says Bernhard Quendt, CTO of Thales, 'we can reduce the size of devices by up to a thousand times, while at the same time making them up to a thousand times more sensitive and precise. It is an exceptional leap in quality'.

The Promises of Quantum Physics

One of the sectors where the greatest opportunities are to be found is the medical sector. Thales has in fact demonstrated an antenna capable of detecting only the magnetic component of radio waves, which allows it to receive with an apparatus about 8 cm long what currently requires antenna gratings that can be hundreds of metres long. Moreover, the enormous sensitivity of this new product under development will also make it possible to detect how electricity moves along organ fibres, opening up completely new branches of diagnostics. One possible application sees this antenna analysing the way electrical discharges move in the brain to identify potential problems (including tumours) long before they can be identified with current systems. The new devices will also be much smaller than the current less powerful ones and will consume much less power.

Unfortunately, it is still too early to have precise data on what can be done and how. It will take another three years or so before the antenna is ready for industrial use, and at least as many years will be needed to create the devices capable of using them and the software that will analyse the data. In an era where digital technology is running at an impressive pace, with artificial intelligence getting closer and closer to mimicking humans month by month, it is impressive to have to wait years to see the development of an antenna or a diagnostic tool completed, but there are still many challenges in this area.

'We know quite well by now,' says Philippe Valery, vp deputy chief technical officer at Thales, 'what we have to do, but we still don't really know how to do it. Manipulating matter with such high levels of precision is very complicated and refining processes is a long task.

Extreme Engineering at Cryogenic Temperatures

In order to obtain these sensors, in fact, one must work at very low temperatures, around 200 sub-zero and above, and use lasers that must be able to precisely hit the electrons that revolve around the atoms. Scientists, in short, are playing with the fundamental elements of matter and the incredible results they promise require a major engineering effort that will have spin-offs far beyond the specific uses of each product. All the nations of the world are investing heavily in the field and one could say that quantum sciences represent to physics and engineering what AI is representing to computer science.