LEMONT, Ill. — One of the most powerful x-ray machines in the world is in southwest suburban Chicago.
The Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory just got an $800 million upgrade – allowing scientists to see inside matter and map out more effective vaccines, longer-lasting batteries, and even stronger construction materials.
If a typical x-ray at the dentist’s office can help detect cavities in our teeth, what could an x-ray machine billions of times brighter reveal – not about our teeth, but about our brains, our bridges, or our batteries?
At Argonne National Laboratory, the Advanced Photon Source, known as the APS, is that ultra bright x-ray device, hailed as “one of the most complex machines on the planet.”
The APS has been in use since 1995, but it’s shut down for a year
On Wednesday, officials cut the ribbon as the U.S. Department of Energy completed a $815 million dollar upgrade, making the x-rays produced here even more powerful.
“Our national laboratories really are jewels, the crown jewels, of this country,” U.S. Energy Department Under Secretary Geri Richmond said.
The new advanced photon source is some 500 times brighter than it was before. That light can penetrate the thickets materials, showing the world things its never been able to see before.
“They can invent new quantum computers, they can invent spin-based electronics, synthetic cartilage for use in prosthetics,” photon scientist Dula Parkinson said.
The APS is shaped like a circle. It’s so vast that Wrigley Field could fit inside the ring, which runs two-thirds of a of a mile. Electrons are accelerated at the speed of light, producing really bright x-rays with ultra-accurate resolutions.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker was on hand Wednesday and part of the ribbon cutting.
“Scientists and researchers from around the word arrive with questions and leave with answers that drive world changing advancements,” he said. “With the upgrades to the advanced photos … the impact of this lab will only of will only grow.”
“A machine that will push the limits of x-ray technology in revealing the structures and dynamics of matter at the nano scale,” lab director Paul Kearns said.
The APS increases our understanding of the outside world, by showing us exactly what’s going on inside.