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Germany Unveils World's Most Powerful X-Ray Laser (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The world's most powerful X-ray laser has begun operating at a facility where scientists will attempt to recreate the conditions deep inside the sun and produce film-like sequences of viruses and cells. The machine, called the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL), acts as a high-speed camera that can capture images of individual atoms in a few millionths of a billionth of a second. Unlike a conventional camera, though, everything imaged by the X-ray laser is obliterated -- its beam is 100 times more intense than if all the sunlight hitting the Earth's surface were focused onto a single thumbnail. The facility near Hamburg, housed in a series of tunnels up to 38 meters underground, will allow scientists to explore the architecture of viruses and cells, create jittery films of chemical reactions as they unfold and replicate conditions deep within stars and planets.
XFEL is the world's third major X-ray laser facility -- projects in Japan and the U.S. have already spawned major advances in structural biology and materials science. The European beam is more powerful, but most significantly has a far higher pulse rate than either of its predecessors. "They can send 100 pulses out per second, we can send 27,000," said Robert Feidenhan'l, chairman of the European XFEL management board. This matters because to study chemical reactions or biological processes, the X-ray strobe is used to capture flickering snapshots of the same system at different time-points that can be stitched together into a film sequence.
XFEL is the world's third major X-ray laser facility -- projects in Japan and the U.S. have already spawned major advances in structural biology and materials science. The European beam is more powerful, but most significantly has a far higher pulse rate than either of its predecessors. "They can send 100 pulses out per second, we can send 27,000," said Robert Feidenhan'l, chairman of the European XFEL management board. This matters because to study chemical reactions or biological processes, the X-ray strobe is used to capture flickering snapshots of the same system at different time-points that can be stitched together into a film sequence.
This post is worthless without a shark.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Is it a laser or is it a camera? I don't want sharks with frickin' cameras attached to their heads.
I expect you to die!
Have gnu, will travel.
For the resurgence of animated gifs!
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"They can send 100 pulses out per second, we can send 27,000," said Robert Feidenhan'l, chairman of the European XFEL management board. This matters because to study chemical reactions or biological processes, the X-ray strobe is used to capture flickering snapshots of the same system at different time-points that can be stitched together into a film sequence.
I'm assuming for biological and chemical processes it's used similar to femtosecond laser video photography where completely different trials are filmed at ever so slightly different times and angles on the same setup so as to create the illusion of a time sequence of a single event over a sizable area.
Nice try Muslim terrorist...eat laser! BZZRRTT!
to u.s. border crossings and airport security check points.
truck scanning.
"its beam is 100 times more intense than if all the sunlight hitting the Earth's surface were focused onto a single thumbnail." OK I'll TALK!
I came here to ask, who comes up with a simile like that?
If it vaporizes the sample at a point in time, how does the image get created. The second part i think i get it. Thousands of samples are zapped and hope that the reactions are caught at different stages. The gif is not of a same entity(atom) but of different entities at different stages of reaction.
It's MASER (Microwave Amplification Stimulated by Emissions of Radiation) and not LASER.
slashdot: A failed experiment.
Next they'll be demanding ONE MILLION dollars from the rest of us.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Noooo you dirty American dog nooooaartghghghhhh
And the world was saved.
Not the Libyans!
but the shark must be huge!
I'll have to go read "Footfall" again. They used fission bomb-pumped x-ray lasers to blat the invaders' space craft.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
Scientist: Hmmm, I wonder if it can make a hole in that thing over there!
...rright away vith his powerrful new x-rray machine.
Noooo you dirty Nazi dog nooooaartghghghhhh
And the world was saved.
FTFY.
can you make it into a pistol so I can zap wasp at 10 passes??
What the #~]@# ... It's an international project. Funding it a bit more than Rusia doesn't make it german.