The most interesting tidbit was that most particle accelerators, like the LHC, want to *avoid* losing energy at those bends: it’s energy lost from the particles you’re trying to accelerate as fast as possible for the Final Collision. Synchotrons do the opposite: they don’t care about the particles themselves, but the X-Ray radiation is the brightest (most photons) we can make, and really useful to look into stuff.

Also, it’s fucking difficult to get x-rays to focus through a lens and reflect on a mirror. In fact that’s why they were initially called “X”-rays, because they didn’t refract and reflect like light so they thought it was something else!

[1] and the neighboring pressure cooker, ILL, one of the most powerful neutron beams in the world (don’t call it “radiation”, it’ll freak out the population).

Pastries are better with science. Science is better with pastries. Now, all we have to do is figure out how to get a feedback loop going…