Preface
When I first visited the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project as a naïve graduate
student in 1974, I had no idea that I was joining a revolution that would continue for
the next ~45 years—and that is still under way. At the time, I was a “parasite,”
grudgingly allowed to use the synchrotron radiation that was a nuisance by-product
of storing relativistic charged particles in circular storage rings. Back then, the
important science was high energy physics with colliding electron and positron
beams. It was exciting to visit the SPEAR control room and watch the gradually
and then sharply rising cross sections as they discovered new particles. The ring
operators received “palm frond awards” for their efforts, while a Nobel prize was
soon awarded to Stanford’s Burt Richter and Brookhaven’s Samuel Ting for
discovery of the J/Ψ particle [1].
Over time, the parasites devoured the host, first taking over the SPEAR storage
ring and eventually the entire linear accelerator, which is now the LCLS free electron
laser. A similar scenario played out in Germany, where the PETRA ring originally
built for positron-electron collisions evolved into the PETRA-III synchrotron radiation lab, and the technology that was to be used in the planned linear collider helped
lead to the FLASH and European XFEL free electron lasers. Biology has a word for
parasites that consume their hosts: “parasitoids.”
Since then (and even earlier), the progress in synchrotron radiation technology
and research has been rapid and unrelenting. A Web of Science search yields nearly
50,000 papers under the “synchrotron radiation” topic, and no doubt many more
papers based on synchrotron work are buried under other headings. Several Nobel
prizes have been based in part on data gathered at synchrotron sources, for structural
studies of ATP synthase, the green fluorescent protein, G-protein-coupled receptors,
and ribosomes. Ironically, the prizes have all been for structural biology—hardly a
consideration when the first storage rings were being designed.
Synchrotron radiation has certainly gone mainstream, not just on the covers of
Physics Today and C&En News. The storage ring SESAME in Jordan is one small
step towards peace in the Middle East. The Advanced Light Source in Berkeley
vii
When I first visited the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project as a naïve graduate
student in 1974, I had no idea that I was joining a revolution that would continue for
the next ~45 years—and that is still under way. At the time, I was a “parasite,”
grudgingly allowed to use the synchrotron radiation that was a nuisance by-product
of storing relativistic charged particles in circular storage rings. Back then, the
important science was high energy physics with colliding electron and positron
beams. It was exciting to visit the SPEAR control room and watch the gradually
and then sharply rising cross sections as they discovered new particles. The ring
operators received “palm frond awards” for their efforts, while a Nobel prize was
soon awarded to Stanford’s Burt Richter and Brookhaven’s Samuel Ting for
discovery of the J/Ψ particle [1].
Over time, the parasites devoured the host, first taking over the SPEAR storage
ring and eventually the entire linear accelerator, which is now the LCLS free electron
laser. A similar scenario played out in Germany, where the PETRA ring originally
built for positron-electron collisions evolved into the PETRA-III synchrotron radiation lab, and the technology that was to be used in the planned linear collider helped
lead to the FLASH and European XFEL free electron lasers. Biology has a word for
parasites that consume their hosts: “parasitoids.”
Since then (and even earlier), the progress in synchrotron radiation technology
and research has been rapid and unrelenting. A Web of Science search yields nearly
50,000 papers under the “synchrotron radiation” topic, and no doubt many more
papers based on synchrotron work are buried under other headings. Several Nobel
prizes have been based in part on data gathered at synchrotron sources, for structural
studies of ATP synthase, the green fluorescent protein, G-protein-coupled receptors,
and ribosomes. Ironically, the prizes have all been for structural biology—hardly a
consideration when the first storage rings were being designed.
Synchrotron radiation has certainly gone mainstream, not just on the covers of
Physics Today and C&En News. The storage ring SESAME in Jordan is one small
step towards peace in the Middle East. The Advanced Light Source in Berkeley
vii