New Linear Accelerator Project Is Giving Science X-Ray Vision
Science’s most brilliant breakthroughs today happen on a scale so small that researchers can study them only with light wavelengths short enough to catch individual atoms in their beam. The international race to build light sources capable of such illumination has begun, and the Linear Accelerator Center operated by Stanford University is in position to reach the finish first.
The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Menlo Park, Calif., has operated on the frontier of high-energy physics research since 1962. The linear accelerator, or Linac, has been instrumental in discovering evidence of quarks and other subatomic building blocks of matter. Four Nobel Prizes have rewarded researchers’ achievements. Now, SLAC is preparing to refocus on the growing fields of photon science and particle-and-particle astrophysics.