the world’s strongest x-ray laser?

The world’s largest and most powerful x-ray machine will, for the first time, use lasers to map the 3D structure of tiny molecules and particles within cells.

It has opened in a €1bn facility near Hamburg and the machine – in a two-mile tunnel deep underground – is capable of generating ultra-short x-ray flashes 27,000 times per second, which are a billion times brighter than conventional radiation sources.

By using cameras that take 4.5 million pictures per second, the machine can actually pick up chemical reactions and biological processes as they occur.

These images, once stitched together, will create film sequences that give a far more complete picture than ever before.