• Question: Do you use the synchrotron in everyday work? If so, how difficult is it to use?

    Asked by to Daren, Lynne, Phillip, Simon on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Daren Fearon

      Daren Fearon answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Not everyday. A lot of work goes into preparing our crystals for taking to the synchrotron and the data collection experiment at the synchrotron only makes up a small part of a project. Usually, we visit about once a month.

      The synchrotron can be intimidating at first as it is so big, with lots of expensive equipment and you have to follow very strict safety procedures. However, there are fantastic scientists who work there who can help you out with your experiments and give you advice. Of course the more experience you have there, the easier it is to use.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Each research group gets a few visits to the synchrotron every year so it’s a special occasion! We save up all our crystals and then work through the night to do our measurements.
      It’s not that difficult to use once you know how – most of the things are controlled by computers and there are scientists there whose job it is to make sure it all runs smoothly.

    • Photo: Lynne Thomas

      Lynne Thomas answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      We have to write something called a proposal to get time on the synchrotron, so we can’t just use it when we want to. The idea is that we write down what we want to do, why and how long it takes and then some other scientists meet and decide which experiments are the best ones. I’m lucky as I get to go and do different types of experiment up to 10 times a year!

      Synchrotrons are big complicated pieces of kit though and they are really big so we couldn’t have one at every university. There is only one in the UK and that is Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire. There is a big team of people who work there all of the time from Engineers to keep it running and producing the X-rays to people who write software to control it and to help us collect and analyse our data. There are people there to teach us how to use it as well so that we can make the most of the time that we have. Its pretty easy to use once they’ve shown you a couple of times! And it never gets boring and it is always exciting to be going!

    • Photo: Phillip Manning

      Phillip Manning answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      My team and I work at the Diamond Synchrotron 4-5 times each year, at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource 2-3 times a year and the European Synchrotron Lightsource 1-2 times a year. Each site has its own interface with the x-ray experimental hutch, so we have to lean each sites procedures and safety measures. The experiments are also quite different at each facility, so we often need to work as a team to ‘drive’ the experiment successfully.

Comments