Unique global light source website launched

The international light source community launched on 17 February the first website dedicated to providing the media, general public and scientific community with the latest news and information on the world’s accelerator-driven light sources (synchrotrons and free-electron lasers) and the science they produce.

The web site -- www.lightsources.org -- was developed and is jointly maintained by the Light Source Communicators Group, whose members represent the world's light source facilities in Europe, North America and Asia. Funding for the project is provided by science funding agencies of many nations. Accelerator-driven light sources can be large, roughly circular machines or linear machines (usually about the size of a football field to much larger) that accelerate electrons to almost the speed of light. It acts like a gigantic microscope that generates intense beams of brilliant light to view the microstructure of materials.

Light sources around the world are advancing research and development in fields as diverse as medicine, drug design, environmental science, agriculture, minerals explorations, advanced materials, forensics, engineering, and materials fabrication. Visit www.lightsources.org for the latest news releases on cutting-edge areas of advanced light source applications for science and technology from facilities around the world.

Anyone can subscribe free of charge to “News Flash” which will email subscribers when news releases and other light source information is posted to the website. Also available on the website are an image bank of light source-related photos and graphics, clippings of news stories, links to light source facility websites, and relevant articles and presentations. Educators will find links to websites relating to light sources and the science conducted at these facilities. Researchers can find specific information regarding each light source facility including job opportunities and events related to the science outreach activities.

Sponsors of this collaborative project include:

• Advanced Light Source (ALS, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA)
• Advanced Photon Source (APS, Argonne National Laboratory, USA)
• Canadian Light Source (CLS, Canada), ELETTRA (Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy)
• European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, France)
• Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungs Labor (HASYLAB Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Germany)
• National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC, Taiwan)
• National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS, Brookhaven National Laboratory USA)
• Photon Factory (KEK Laboratory, Japan)
• Pohang Light Source (PLS, Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, Korea)
• Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, USA)
• SPring-8 (Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, Japan)
• Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC, University of Wisconsin, USA)
• Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility (SURF III, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA)
• Swiss Light Source (SLS, Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland)
• The Free-Electron Laser at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab, USA)

For more information, contact: Amaya Muñoz (webmaster@lightsources.org)