Find out more about our ambitious upgrade project, delivering more brightness, more coherence, and greater speed of analysis to UK science. More about Diamond-II
Find out more about Diamond's response to virus research.
Stitching, sculpture and slug-like aliens all formed part of a special 10th Anniversary event that was on Friday 11th May at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility, on the Harwell Science & Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
“The science that is happening here at Diamond matters to everyone in society. It will influence our futures in all manner of ways. What medicines we take, what energy supplies we have at our disposal and how we power our cars. Synchrotron research will also play a part in determining what condition the artefacts, paintings and historical documents in our cathedrals, museums and art galleries are in 100 years from now. By developing a range of different ways for the public to get involved and learn about Diamond, the facility is doing a great deal to inspire the young and help them develop skills for the future, and teach us all something of the amazingly diverse range of experiments that take place here on a daily basis.”Ed Vaizey MP for Wantage & Didcot and Minister for Culture, Communications & the Creative Industries
One of the projects on display was Light Reading, where the public were invited to write short stories inspired by the facility. The Light Reading competition was launched last September as a way of introducing Diamond to a wider public audience. The Sound of Science scooped top prize with a story in which a harassed scientist leading a school tour of a synchrotron is heckled by a slug-like alien and as the tale unfolds we get to the bottom of their mysterious visit to planet earth.
Other projects that have taken Diamond’s science story telling into creative areas are the World’s Largest Diffraction Pattern, another textile piece supported by local biotech company Evotec, which saw over 5,000 people sew stitches and learn how diffraction patterns work like knitting patterns to enable scientists to create a 3D representative of the structure of a specific biological target.
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
Copyright © 2022 Diamond Light Source
Diamond Light Source Ltd
Diamond House
Harwell Science & Innovation Campus
Didcot
Oxfordshire
OX11 0DE
Diamond Light Source® and the Diamond logo are registered trademarks of Diamond Light Source Ltd
Registered in England and Wales at Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom. Company number: 4375679. VAT number: 287 461 957. Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number: GB287461957003.