| Imagine a large ring (more than 350 meters in circumference), enclosing, off-centre, a smaller ring in which particles (electrons) are launched and then accelerated; when their speed more or less reaches that of light they are directed towards the large ring, but as they tend to go straight, they are forced, by means of magnets, to bend continuously and at every bend, these electrons, jostled, emit light.
The synchronization of these magnetic fields gives the synchrotron its name and the particle beam or synchrotron radiation, is the reason for naming this synchrotron SOLEIL (sun). However, this magical story continues as it is possible, with this electromagnetic light, to separate the different wavelengths and select certain ones to penetrate the atoms and molecules of living things and materials. Through these windows, like key holes, known as beamlines, we can see! We can see viruses, the organization of tissues, rock structures and the architecture of hair, the synthesis of plastics and the composition of alloys. We can see fixed images, 3-D images, moving images and to see all these images we use methods also with pretty names – fluorescence, tomography, spectrography, diffraction, diffusion and so on–, often preceded by the generic term micro (as we operate on the infinitesimally small scale) and starting by the name of the radiation usually used (X-ray, infrared, ultraviolet). The uses for this super-microscope are, like man's curiosity, insatiable and infinite. | 
Editions "Le pommier"
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