Thaindian News

Sydney, July 4 (IANS) Researchers can now see molecular-sized objects in greater detail by using the full colour spectrum of synchrotron light, providing unprecedented levels of imaging for medical research, improved drug development and advanced engineering materials.

A synchrotron is a football field sized machine that accelerates electrons to almost the speed of light, creating extremely bright light.

Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science (CXS), at the
University of Melbourne, revealed that by utilising the full spectrum of colours of a synchrotron, based in Chicago, they obtained greater clarity and 60-fold increase in the speed of imaging.

Keith Nugent, physicist, University of Melbourne and research director of CXS, said the discovery was an exciting development, reports the journal Nature Photonics.

“Typically for best imaging, researchers need to convert samples to crystals, but this is not always possible in all samples,” he said, according to a Melbourne statement.

“This discovery of utilising full colour synchrotron light to improve precision and speed of imaging has huge potential in the field,” he said.

The international project was led by Brian Abbey of the University of Melbourne’s School of Physics and CXS, whose team made the discovery.

“We will now be able to see things in detail at the nanoscale much more easily. It is like going from an old film camera to the latest digital SLR.” A nanometre is a billionth of a metre.

“The increase in speed, in particular, opens the way for us to see things faster in 3D at the nanoscale, which has previously taken an impracticably long time,” Abbey said.