Diamond receives £100m boost

The Diamond Light Source at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus has been allocated £97.4m by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to add ten more beamlines to the 22 currently in use at the facility, as part of the Phase III development.

“Diamond – the world-best light source – shines a light on how strategic government investment in high-tech, high-skilled facilities can push at the boundaries of science and drive forward the new high-tech, high-skilled industries and jobs of the future,” said Business Secretary Lord Mandelson.

Diamond uses cutting-edge technology to generate beams of light –from infrared to X-rays – to examine the physical properties of materials at an atomic and molecular level. The synchrotron accelerates electrons to near the speed of light, which are then passed through special magnets. This causes the electrons to release energy in the form of incredibly bright synchrotron light, which can examine solids, liquids or gas at minute scales.

Recent materials studied have included brain tissue to further understanding of Parkinson’s disease, and metals for hip replacements.

Lord Mandelson added: “Today we’re demonstrating our ambitious vision for UK Science. By investing in one of the jewels in the nation’s science crown we’re building on record levels of investments over the past decade to secure the future of science.”

Diamond’s Phase III development has also received a £13.8m contribution from the Wellcome Trust. Sir Mark Walport, director of the trust said: “Diamond is a world class facility and it is essential that it has both the capital and the revenue funding necessary for it to deliver world class science.”

“This Phase III capital investment demonstrates our funders’ commitments to the UK science base. The team will now focus on delivering the additional experimental facilities by 2017, which will enable us to increase our scientific outputs by 50%,” said Diamond’s chief executive, Professor Gerhard Materlik.

The new beams will extend research into industrial processing, engineering materials, forensics, environmental and medical science, archaeology, cultural heritage and food science. The new beams could be used to develop cheaper and more effective ways to remove toxins from polluted soils; or provide high resolution 3D images of biological samples which would further knowledge of disease and help develop new therapies.

Diamond Facts:

The Diamond Synchrotron is in a silver toroidal building which covers the area of around five football pitches. It uses 35,000m2 of concrete – roughly 93 swimming pools. Its floor area is 45,000m2, almost eight times the size of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Diamond has been used to study the structure of a protein called FANCL, which is known to play a role initiating DNA repair; to study the properties of magnetic materials and to solve the puzzle of how HIV establishes itself in the body. Diamond’s beamlines can be used in x-ray diffraction and scattering experiments to analyse the atomic structure of molecules and the molecular structure of non-crystalline materials.

X-ray imaging using the beamlines can allow scientists to gather detailed information from below the surface of a material through full-field imaging or scanning. X-ray computed tomography allows scientists to create three-dimensional reconstructions.

By analysing the absorption, reflectivity or fluorescence of a sample, scientists can reveal the elemental composition, chemical state and physical properties of inorganic material and biological systems using spectroscopic experiments, Diamond can be used across a wide range of disciplines including chemistry, earth science, environmental and life sciences, physics and material science, and engineering.

The synchrotron consists of an electron gun to produce a stream of low energy particles, a linear accelerator to increase the energy of these electrons, a booster synchrotron to further accelerate the beams and a storage ring to maintain the energy and confine the beams as they produce synchrotron light.

Without a synchrotron, ‘anti-flu’ drug, Relenza would not have been developed, nor would a vaccine for Foot & Mouth.

Synchrotrons have been used to follow the crystallisation of pure cocoa butter in real time – the results showed optimum conditions for chocolate manufacture.

X-ray beams from synchrotrons have been used to penetrate large, complex engineering structures such as aircraft wings to increase knowledge of residual stresses.