Dazzling new light source created at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory
New discovery allows scientists to study smaller objects at higher resolution, shedding light on long-held secrets

BY HEATHER ROCK WOODS

A new Stanford facility packs X-rays into beams some 10 billion times brighter than dental X-rays, forming a powerful "microscope" to peer into a tiny world. The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) dedicated this new light source at a Jan. 29 ceremony.

A $58 million upgrade helped convert SPEAR3 into an intense x-ray “microscope” for illuminating long-kept secrets in materials science, chemistry and biology. The upgrade was the first time the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) joined in building an entire accelerator research facility. Structural biology research, which will enable targeted drug design, is a priority, according to NIH.

SPEAR stands for Stanford Positron Electron Asymmetric Ring. SPEAR3 incorporates the latest technology -- much of it pioneered at SLAC and its Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) -- to make it competitive with the best synchrotron sources in the world.

"The light shines brilliantly these days at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. "The start-up of SSRL's new synchrotron light facility, SPEAR3, guarantees a world-class program in X-ray science for years to come."

Some 2,000 scientists from around the country will use SPEAR3's extremely bright X-ray light each year to illuminate long-kept secrets in materials science, chemistry and biology.

Synchrotron light has revolutionized our view into the submicroscopic world and has contributed to major innovations in fields such as solid-state physics, materials science, environmental sciences, structural biology and chemistry. Synchrotron light is created when electrons traveling the speed of light take a curved path around a storage ring, a structure in which high-energy particles can be circulated many times and thus "stored." The electrons emit electromagnetic light in X-ray through infrared wavelengths. The resulting light beam has characteristics that make it ideal for revealing the intricate architecture and utility of many kinds of matter.

"This facility will be crucial to advancing the field of structural biology, which is growing in importance to the NIH [National Institutes of Health] mission, by enabling cutting-edge targeted drug design projects and major efforts such as the Protein Structure Initiative and the Structural Biology arm of the NIH Roadmap," said Dr. Elias Zerhouni, NIH director. "From its very genesis as a joint project between NIH and DOE [Department of Energy], this new facility exemplifies the collaborative nature of science and the productive cross-fertilization between biological and physical disciplines."

Said SSRL physicist John Arthur: "SPEAR3's brilliant X-ray beams provide the ability to study smaller objects at higher resolution. In many cases, the greater brightness at SPEAR3 will also enable researchers to take their data faster, do more difficult experiments and use smaller samples of material."

Abraham noted that this is the first time the DOE and NIH have joined in building an entire accelerator research facility, though the NIH has a long history of investing in beam lines and experiments at SSRL, a DOE facility.

Thirty years ago, SSRL was among the first laboratories in the world to use synchrotron produced X-rays for studying matter at atomic and molecular scales, and the first to offer beam time to a broad community of scientists from academic, industry and government labs submitting research proposals for peer review. The original SPEAR ring, built for particle physics programs at SLAC, yielded two Nobel prizes in particle physics and provided fertile ground for innovating synchrotron techniques and making important discoveries. SPEAR3 is a complete rebuild and upgrade of the SPEAR2 ring, itself an upgrade of the original ring.

Lines extend from the ring to carry synchrotron radiation to experimental stations. The new ring has the capacity to easily add eight to 10 more beam lines, with associated experimental stations, beyond the existing 11 beam lines. A $14.2 million gift from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to the California Institute of Technology, announced Jan. 28, will allow scientists at Caltech and Stanford to collaborate on the building of a designated beam line at SPEAR3 for structural molecular biology research. The exceptional quality and brightness of SPEAR3's X-ray light is perfectly suited to studying complicated biological systems.

The first electron beams circulated in the new SPEAR3 ring in mid-December 2003, and the first experiments are scheduled to begin in March.

"SPEAR3 is a remarkable resource that will enable state-of-the-art science in numerous fields," said SSRL Director and Stanford Professor Keith Hodgson. "The $58 million project was completed on time and on budget. I thank the people whose extraordinary teamwork made the project successful. In a remarkable accomplishment, the old accelerator was dismantled, a new tunnel floor poured, SPEAR3 installed and commissioned, and users back online -- all within a mere 11 months."