Precious beams: Research facility gains attention for its use of 'beam lines'

Diamond Light Source synchrotron facility is nestled among green fields in Didcot, England.

The Diamond Light Source synchrotron facility in England has acquired a loyal following of scientists.

The Diamond Light Source synchrotron facility works in a similar way to a machine you may have heard of. Except, unlike the Large Hadron Collider – a 27km-long machine that forms a tunnelled loop buried deep beneath the Alps along the Swiss-French border – the synchrotron at Diamond goes on for about half a kilometre, and can be found above ground near Didcot, a civil parish in England best known for its “living railway museum”.