Dear friends of Science,

'Super-scope' will unlock secrets
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5176558.stm

The biggest science facility to be built in the UK for 30 years has marked its
first major milestone.
Diamond is housed in a vast, doughnut-shaped building

Electrons fired into straight accelerator, or linac
Boosted in small synchrotron and injected into storage ring
Magnets in large ring bend and focus electrons accelerated to near light-speeds
Energy lost emerges down beamlines as highly focused light at X-ray wavelengths

The Diamond machine has produced its first "synchrotron" light beam, which will
allow experiments to get underway. Diamond is described as a series of "super
microscopes" that will probe the structure of matter down to the scale of atoms
and molecules. Experiments at the Oxfordshire facility could lead to
breakthroughs in physics, medicine and environmental protection. Located at a
science campus near Didcot, the £300m-plus Diamond Light Source is housed in a
vast doughnut-shaped building covering an area the size of five football
pitches. The core of the machine is an enormous ring that runs for 562m.
Electrons are fired into this ring and accelerated in a vacuum to velocities
approaching light-speed.
Breakthrough hope

As the electrons are steered around the ring by huge electromagnets, they lose
energy in the form of synchrotron radiation - exceptionally intense beams of
X-ray, ultraviolet, and infrared light - also known as synchrotron light. This
light is channelled into areas of the facility known as beamlines. These
research stations are equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation that allows
scientists to probe deep into the basic structure of matter. Researchers hope
these investigations will lead to scientific breakthroughs. Diamond will
eventually host up to 40 beamlines around the synchrotron ring. Synchrotron
light has been used to help improve foods, cosmetics, drugs and surgical tools.
It is used in medical imaging, the detection of toxic substances in the
environment, forensics and monitoring stresses in complex engineering structures
such as aircraft wings. Commenting on the first synchrotron light beam at
Diamond, the facility's head of accelerator physics, Riccardo Bartolini, said he
was "very encouraged" by the early data. The project is funded by the UK
government and the Wellcome Trust.










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