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Jul 20, 2009, 12:26 GMT

Scientists tune world's brightest X-ray beam in Germany

Hamburg - The most intense X-ray beam of its type in the world has been generated inside a 2,300-metre circular tunnel under the German city of Hamburg, the Desy research institute said Monday. The machine, which cost 225 million euros (297 million dollars), was switched on in April, but unlike a light bulb it takes weeks to tune up. The X-ray light came on on Saturday. More months will now be spent adjusting measuring devices. Next year, scientists can begin actually using the machine to peer at atomic structures in proteins, cancer cells and the like. Earlier this year, India signed an agreement to aid the project and gain special access to the machine, known as a synchrotron, which has been remodelled from an earlier particle accelerator at the site and is named Petra III. In a previous life, the Petra ring was used to discover an atomic particle called the gluon. The synchrotron keeps a beam of up to 10 billion positrons - the anti-particles to electrons - going round a circle permanently at almost the speed of light. Desy, which is mainly funded by the German government, said the particles had been racing round the tracks for weeks, but have now been put on a zig-zag course so that they emit the light needed for experiments.

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