Desktop synchrotron source takes a closer step towards reality
New Scientist: A paper in Nature Physics suggests that a desktop synchrotron particle accelerator could soon be able to freeze-frame the frenetic motion of atoms and molecules. An international team of physicists led by Dino Jaroszynski of Strathclyde University in Scotland have built a prototype light source, which they claim can be upgraded to produce intense, ultra-short pulses of X-rays. Synchrotrons are in great demand because their intense X-ray beams have so many uses, from analysing biological molecules to etching electronic components and seeing inside microscopic fossils.
