diamond life

On 8 October 2004, Lord Sainsbury, Minister for Science and Technology, opened the first section of the machine tunnel of the Diamond Light Source, currently being built at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory science campus in south Oxfordshire.

Diamond is a third-generation synchrotron, a machine that produces extremely powerful ultraviolet and X-ray beams. Scientists and engineers can use these beams to examine the basic structure of matter, materials, and biological samples, with applications in materials science, medicine, biology, and beyond.

The opening of the first tunnel section allows the Diamond team to start installing the machine, which will be completed in 2007. The doughnut-shaped structure will be more than half a kilometre in circumference, covering an area the size of five football pitches.

New funding for Diamond has also been announced. Just over £120 million has been allocated to enable the development of an additional 14 experimental stations (beamlines) by 2012. This is made up of £103.4 million in government funding and £16.8 million funding from the Wellcome Trust. The new beamlines will significantly extend the scientific capability of Diamond.