The multi‐wire proportional chamber, introduced in 1967 by Georges Charpak (recipient of the 1992 Nobel prize for physics) allows to achieve high‐rate, fully electronics detection and localization of ionizing radiation. The myriad of devices inspired by this initial work generated a revolution in the conception of detectors for elementary particle physics experiments; examples are the time projection chamber, the drift chamber, the micro‐strip gas chamber. After a brief introduction on the basic operating principles of the device, I will describe several examples of application of advanced gas detectors in medicine and biology and analyze the operating characteristics that make the new devices attractive when confronted with classic detectors.