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Medicine & vaccines
Mapping the 3-D structure of proteins and viruses — the foundation of modern drug and vaccine design, including COVID-19 treatments.
The science, simply
What is a synchrotron?
It is one of the most powerful scientific instruments humanity has ever built: a ring, often the size of a stadium, that whips electrons to 99.9999% of the speed of light to create a beam of light billions of times brighter than the sun — light so intense it lets scientists see the individual atoms inside matter. This is how it works, and why Africa is building one.
99.9999%of the speed of light
Billions×brighter than the sun
~70light sources worldwide
0on the African continent — yet
A synchrotron light source is a giant machine that accelerates electrons to almost the speed of light and bends their path with powerful magnets. Every time the beam bends, it sheds an intensely bright beam of light — synchrotron light — spanning infrared through to hard X-rays. That light is piped to dozens of beamlines, where scientists use it as the ultimate microscope to study matter atom-by-atom.
Explore the machine
Anatomy of a synchrotron
Follow the electrons on their journey — from a hot wire to a beam of light. Tap any part of the machine to learn what it does.
In four steps
How a synchrotron makes light
The whole process, from a heated wire to a discovery, happens in a fraction of a second — and repeats billions of times a second.
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1
Accelerate
An electron gun boils electrons off a hot cathode. A linear accelerator then uses radio-wave fields to push them to nearly the speed of light in just a few metres.
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2
Store & steer
A booster ramps the electrons up to full energy and injects them into the storage ring, where magnets hold them on a circular path for hours, in an ultra-high vacuum.
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3
Emit light
Every time a magnet bends the beam — or an undulator wiggles it — the electrons radiate synchrotron light, from infrared all the way to hard X-rays.
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4
Experiment
Beamlines channel, filter and focus that light onto a sample. Detectors record how the matter responds — revealing its structure atom-by-atom.
One machine, every colour
The light it makes — and what it reveals
Synchrotron light is not a single colour. It spans the spectrum from infrared to hard X-rays. Drag the slider to tune the beam and see what each kind of light lets scientists study.
Soft X-rays
Tuned to the energies of light elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen — ideal for studying chemistry, catalysts, magnetism and the surfaces of materials.
Why it matters
Brighter than anything else on Earth
What makes a synchrotron special is not just the kind of light, but its brilliance — how many photons it packs into a tiny, sharply focused beam. The scale is almost unimaginable.
Candle flame1×
The Sun~10⁶×
Hospital X-ray tube~10⁹×
Synchrotron beam~10¹⁵×
Latest 4th-gen source~10²¹×
Brilliance compared on a logarithmic scale (photons per second, per area, per angle, in a narrow colour band). Each step up the chart is a leap of thousands to millions of times.
Science it unlocks
What scientists do with synchrotron light
A single synchrotron serves chemistry, biology, medicine, physics, engineering, the environment and the arts. A few of the breakthroughs it makes possible:
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Batteries & clean energy
Watching ions move inside a battery as it charges, to build longer-lasting, faster-charging and safer energy storage.
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Advanced materials
Designing stronger, lighter alloys, semiconductors and catalysts by seeing exactly how their atoms are arranged.
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Agriculture & food
Tracing how plants take up nutrients and metals, to grow more resilient, nutritious crops on challenging soils.
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Cultural heritage
Reading hidden layers of paintings, fossils and ancient artefacts without ever cutting them open.
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Environment
Tracking pollutants and toxic metals at trace levels in soil, water and air — pinpointing where they come from.
Just how big is it?
A stadium-sized scientific instrument
Storage rings range from roughly a football pitch across to several city blocks around. The biggest are more than 800 metres in circumference, housed in a ring-shaped building you could jog laps around.
≈ 110 mSESAME (Jordan) — built by a developing-region coalition
≈ 560 mDiamond Light Source (UK)
≈ 844 mESRF (France) — one of the largest
Why Africa needs one
Around 70 light sources serve the world. Not one is in Africa.
Today, African scientists who need synchrotron light must travel thousands of kilometres to Europe, Asia or North America to do their best work. The African Light Source initiative is changing that — building the people, partnerships and science case for an advanced light source on the continent, so that world-class research can happen in Africa, by Africans, for the world. If a coalition in the Middle East could build SESAME, Africa can build the AfLS.
Common questions
Synchrotrons, demystified
Is it the same as a hospital X-ray machine?
They use the same family of light, but a synchrotron is millions of times brighter and far more precise. That brilliance is what lets it image single atoms and watch chemical reactions happen in real time — things a medical X-ray simply cannot do.
Is it dangerous? Is it nuclear?
No. A synchrotron is not a nuclear reactor and produces no nuclear waste — it simply accelerates electrons. The radiation is fully contained behind thick shielding, and the machine switches off instantly. Thousands of scientists work safely at light sources every day.
Why does the light come out when the beam bends?
Any electric charge that changes direction radiates energy. Because the electrons are travelling so close to the speed of light, that radiation is squeezed into an intensely bright, narrow, forward-pointing beam — the synchrotron light scientists use.
How long do the electrons last?
Once stored, a beam of electrons can circulate for many hours, looping the ring millions of times every second. RF cavities top up the energy they lose as light, and the beam is periodically refilled to keep the light steady.
How many are there, and why none in Africa?
Around 70 light sources operate across some two dozen countries — but none on the African continent. Building one is exactly the goal of the African Light Source initiative. See the roadmap →