Before you begin your journey through Elements’ special report on the synchrotron, I wanted to tell you about my trip there.
It wasn’t with the flashy displays in the lobby or even the clear words of the outreach staff that my understanding of the synchrotron clicked into place. It was the little fact that Diamond’s senior support scientist Julia Parker doesn’t like to eat mussels.
Her boss does eat them, though, which ensures a steady supply of mussel shells. The reason why Julia needs them is because she’s trying to find out how they can be so strong.
Mussel shells are so sturdy, and yet they are made of calcium carbonate, which is crumbly when it exists as chalk. Julia wants to know how that can be. The trick is probably to learn how the mussels form the compound and align molecules of it as they grow their shells.
It’s the experiment Julia is most proud of and most excited by. And yet she’s doing it on the side.
That’s because, primarily, Diamond is a hub of hundreds of experiments conducted on behalf of outside research. So Julia spends most of her days supporting the work of academic and industry scientists who hire out time in the synchrotron to do their own research.
The breadth of what scientists use the synchrotron for is astonishing. You can learn about almost anything by placing it in a beamline, where your subject will be struck by light of varying wavelengths. This super light, sometimes 100 billion times brighter than the Sun, is lost from the electrons that whizz around the synchrotron.
They also get a little time to work on their own experiments
Folks like Julia help out with experiments on cancer, aircraft parts, wheat grains, rocks and even ancient cultural artifacts. But they also get a little time to work on their own experiments. For Julia, it’s mussel shells.
For Tina Geraki, a senior support scientist on a different beamline, it’s cancer - among other things. “I’ve done my hair!” she told me. “It wasn’t very exciting, but it depends what you’re looking for.”
Tina and Julia, and all the outside scientists who they assist, are explorers. They want to discover why things happen the way they do. As I walked around the doughnut-shaped synchrotron, which attracts researchers from around the world, I realised that Julia and Tina’s curiosity is what make Diamond work.
Diamond is to science what New York is to people: diverse, dynamic and delightful.
The same can be said of the Elements team, and the content its members have produced for this thrilling special report.
Images courtesy of bugmonkey and Diamond.
For more, see Elements’ special report on Diamond Light Source.
Beam Time, Beautiful, Diamond Light Source, mussels, research, synchrotron, Comment.
Editor’s comment: why the synchrotron is like New York
By Adam SmithBefore you begin your journey through Elements’ special report on the synchrotron, I wanted to tell you about my trip there.
It wasn’t with the flashy displays in the lobby or even the clear words of the outreach staff that my understanding of the synchrotron clicked into place. It was the little fact that Diamond’s senior support scientist Julia Parker doesn’t like to eat mussels.
Her boss does eat them, though, which ensures a steady supply of mussel shells. The reason why Julia needs them is because she’s trying to find out how they can be so strong.
Mussel shells are so sturdy, and yet they are made of calcium carbonate, which is crumbly when it exists as chalk. Julia wants to know how that can be. The trick is probably to learn how the mussels form the compound and align molecules of it as they grow their shells.
It’s the experiment Julia is most proud of and most excited by. And yet she’s doing it on the side.
That’s because, primarily, Diamond is a hub of hundreds of experiments conducted on behalf of outside research. So Julia spends most of her days supporting the work of academic and industry scientists who hire out time in the synchrotron to do their own research.
The breadth of what scientists use the synchrotron for is astonishing. You can learn about almost anything by placing it in a beamline, where your subject will be struck by light of varying wavelengths. This super light, sometimes 100 billion times brighter than the Sun, is lost from the electrons that whizz around the synchrotron.
They also get a little time to work on their own experiments
Folks like Julia help out with experiments on cancer, aircraft parts, wheat grains, rocks and even ancient cultural artifacts. But they also get a little time to work on their own experiments. For Julia, it’s mussel shells.
For Tina Geraki, a senior support scientist on a different beamline, it’s cancer - among other things. “I’ve done my hair!” she told me. “It wasn’t very exciting, but it depends what you’re looking for.”
Tina and Julia, and all the outside scientists who they assist, are explorers. They want to discover why things happen the way they do. As I walked around the doughnut-shaped synchrotron, which attracts researchers from around the world, I realised that Julia and Tina’s curiosity is what make Diamond work.
Diamond is to science what New York is to people: diverse, dynamic and delightful.
The same can be said of the Elements team, and the content its members have produced for this thrilling special report.
Images courtesy of bugmonkey and Diamond.
For more, see Elements’ special report on Diamond Light Source.
Beam Time, Beautiful, Diamond Light Source, mussels, research, synchrotron, Comment.