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X-ray Generator Fits In the Palm of Your Hand

ananyo writes "Scientists have reported the first tabletop source of ultra-short, laser-like pulses of low energy, or 'soft,' X-rays. The light, capable of probing the structure and dynamics of molecules (abstract), was previously available only at large, billion-dollar national facilities such as synchrotrons or free-electron lasers, where competition for use of the equipment is fierce. The new device, by husband-and-wife team Margaret Murnane and Henry Kapteyn based at JILA in Boulder, Colorado, might soon lie within the grasp of a university laboratory budget — perhaps allowing them to one day be as common in labs as electron microscopes are."

2 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Re:About usage by c0lo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I imagine no worse than peeling a roll of sticky tape... will they ban these evil inventions as well?

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    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  2. Re:How time flies by ChumpusRex2003 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Nowadays, people install electron microscopes in their living rooms for use as educational kids' toys. See youtube for examples