The Queen Comes to Harwell
The Queen came to my constituency last Friday to open the Diamond Synchrotron. She was fifteen minutes late, and I heard her say to the Lord Lieutenant as she walked in “Roadworks!”. No one is immune.
But on to more substantial matters. Her Majesty was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh to open the Synchrotron, a £500 million scientific investment based at Harwell. It is a gigantic silver doughnut with a 500m plus circumference. Electrons are whizzed round at the speed of light to create a huge x-ray machine to examine the smallest particles.
As well as helping pharmaceutical development, the Diamond can be put to other imaginative uses. A synchrotron in the US was used to discover a hidden text in the Archimedes Palimpsest http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5235894.stm. The UK synchrotron is being used to look at the Dead Sea Scrolls, to see how they are degrading, and may be used to read the hidden scrolls that cannot be opened because of their state of decay. I remarked that it was only a matter of time before the synchrotron featured in a Dan Brown or Sam Bourn novel, to be told that Dan Brown had already set a murder at CERN in Geneva.
Sue B said on October 22nd, 2007 at 10:34 pm:
My father was one of the founding scientists to work at Harwell - he would be amazed and thrilled to see the work that is going on in that area now.
By the way, my niece was at the Diamond opening and said the Queen was half an hour late due to a crash on the M40….it’s funny how chinese whispers occur in the strangest of places!