A fourth generation synchrotron will officially enter service on August 25 in Grenoble, its operator, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) announced on Wednesday. Its capacity for exploring matter is a hundred times greater than that existing.
It is the first “high energy” particle accelerator of this capacity to be launched worldwide. Fourteen other synchrotron modernization projects – similar to that carried out in the 844 meters of the Grenoble ring – are currently underway.
A synchrotron provides very intense X-ray fluxes, accelerated to a speed close to that of light in a large ring. The technology of this new generation of devices will allow a better examination of matter, down to the atomic scale, thanks to an improvement in the “brightness” and the “coherence” of the flow of projected X-rays, detailed the project partners before the press.
Developed since 2012 by ESRF teams, it will provide “new tools for investigating the structure of living matter and materials”, with “applications in many fields such as health, energy, l environment, new sustainable and innovative materials, but also cultural heritage and paleontology “.
Covid-19 interaction with the human body
“X-ray science has always pushed the boundaries of Science. But the technology used (” Extremely brilliant source “or EBS),” is our greatest breakthrough in recent months and will open up perspectives for the next decade . This is a very important step, “said Francesco Sette, the director general of ERSF, on Wednesday.
Located on the scientific peninsula of Grenoble, the former ESRF was arrested on December 10, 2018 after twenty-six years of activity. Inaugurated in 1994, it was the first third generation particle accelerator launched worldwide.
Twenty-two countries participated in the financing – spread between 2015 and 2022 – of its modernization, estimated at 150 million euros. Even before its official launch, the new tool was used during the health crisis, particularly in the field of structural biology to try to understand the functioning and interaction of Covid-19 with the human body, in order to contribute to the search for a vaccine.
Researchers also used its 3D imaging system to scan the lungs and analyze the effects of the coronavirus during the superinfection phase.
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