How do we look at things we can't see with our eyes? #physics #synchrotron #science

How do we look at things we can't see with our eyes? My name is Dr. Jessica Walker and I'm a Beamline scientist here at Diamond Light Source. We look at really tiny samples. One way that we can look at tiny things is using a light microscope and you might have used one of those before. This uses visible light, which is light that we can see with our eyes. However, if we want to look at really tiny things, then we need to use a different kind of light. We use X-rays which we can focus down to 50 nanometers which is 20 times smaller than a single hair from your head. Once we have our tiny beam of light, we can scan that over an object and find out what it looks like, but also what it's made from and we can study all the amazing patterns and different structures that you can see in these samples. I help people who are doing research to come here and use Beam Line. They bring any kind of sample that they're working on. This can be batteries, plant cells, and they come here and I help them to use the instrument so that they can look at their sample and learn more about it. What I enjoy about my job is getting to see things that you would never be able to see if you didn't use X-rays. This can be a wide range of science from what paints an artist was using in the 17th century to what cancer medicines are going to work and how they work.