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GERMANY: World’s Biggest X-ray Goes Online

Scientists in Germany say the world’s largest X-ray laser is now in operation and will help them capture images of structures and processes at an atomic level.

The DESY research center near Hamburg said the laser that went online in mid-September 2017 flashes 27,000 pulses per second, resulting in luminance a billion times higher than the best conventional X-ray sources. Scientists hope the European X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) project will open new areas of research. DESY says XFEL will enable researchers “to decipher the molecular composition of viruses and cells, take 3-D images of the nanoworld, film chemical reactions and study processes occurring deep inside planets.”

Institutions from Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and other countries are involved in the project.  THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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