If you live near SOLEIL or many kilometers away; if you are familiar with the word synchrotron or if it is a strange vocabulary word; whether you are interested or repulsed by science… Visit this informational area. With just a few clicks, you can discover one of the three most important scientific projects in France—and who knows, tomorrow you may visit us to find out more.
SOLEIL is a light source, a large lamp (150 m in diameter) that produces infrared, UV rays, and X-rays to explore matter at the atomic level—the aging of chocolate, the baking of bread, the effect of cosmetics on skin, control of plastic bottles, or the treatment of pollutants and the development of new medications. You will be surprised at the questions we are helping to answer.
Imagine a huge circular racetrack, 354m in its perimeter, inside which light electrons are speeded up. Each time these small electrically-charged particles of matter turn, they emit a luminous ray called a “synchrotron ray.”
In this era of genomes and nanotechnologies, we need to see living matter (cells, viruses, bacteria) or inert matter (chemical elements; various materials) up close, on an atomic level. One of the best ways to do this is to light up the matter with an extremely bright light. This is possible thanks to machines such as SOLEIL.
| 
