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On 31 July the Australian Synchrotron opened for business: $200 million of concrete, stainless, steel, magnets, lead and vacuum. It was an exciting day for Australian science. But what’s it all for? Why had scientists been lobbying so long for this vast scientific instrument? The synchrotron is essentially nothing more than a light source – very fine beams of intense synchrotron light ranging from hard x-rays through the visible light spectrum to infrared. It’s the ways that we can use that light that give the synchrotron its power as a scientific instrument. In the coming months in Australasian Science we’ll explore the practical uses of the synchrotron – looking at each of the beamlines – the workstations where light leaves the synchrotron to do useful work. Five beamlines are already open for business. Four more will open progressively through 2008. This month we look at the infrared beamline and some of the people using and driving it. Infrared to reveal IVF egg healthOne of the challenges for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) is the failure rate, especially in older women where less than one in four cycles are successful. Monash University’s Bayden Wood hopes that synchrotron light can improve the success rate. “We’re using the infrared beamline to study how mammalian eggs mature. Our hope is that we will be able to better assess the viability of eggs for use in IVF.” The synchrotron gives Wood and his colleagues a much greater capacity for analysis at the subcellular level – looking at the processes occurring within the single egg cell. It’s one of a range of projects that he and his colleagues have underway. He is also looking at single living red blood cells affected by malaria, sickle cell disease and other blood disorders, and monitoring how single cells respond to drugs. Other projects involve visualising cells for cancer diagnosis, organ donation, heart disease, stem cell research and algae research. Much of this work will benefit from access to synchrotron infrared light. "The beauty of the synchrotron and the infrared beamline is that we can apply it to any cells," he says. "We are only limited by our imagination." Federation documents at riskUniversity of Canberra researcher Alana Lee is using the infrared beamline to help in the conservation of historical documents at the National Archives of Australia. Documents such as Queen Victoria’s Commission of Assent to Australia’s Constitution are potentially at risk due to the inks used in the 19th Century. “They used iron gall ink,” she says, “a combination of iron sulphate and tannins which they obtained from wasp galls on trees. The problem is that the mixture can be quite acidic and corrosive. It eats into the parchment or paper support, which begins to deteriorate.” Lee hopes that unravelling the chemical changes which take place in ink and parchment over time will allow the development of treatments to halt deterioration and conserve important documents. Further, the techniques she uses may well be useful for precise analysis and comparison of documents important to criminal investigations. Lee’s work is part of a program that’s used synchrotrons around the world to study the conservation of Australia’s heritage – from bark paintings, to historical cars and aircraft, to motion picture film stock.
Infrared factsMost analytical laboratories and many production lines use infrared light to test the chemistry and structure of materials. The Australian Synchrotron offers more. It produces infrared beams at least 100 times more intense than conventional infrared sources. The beams are polarised and highly-collimated (the beam doesn’t spread out – the photons are practically parallel). This means the beam can resolve detail down to 3 microns. The major use is infrared vibrational spectroscopy. Infrared light causes molecular bonds to vibrate. The energy of that vibration is a signature of each kind of bond. The quality of synchrotron infrared light greatly increases the potential of infrared techniques. It can be used to study reactions as they happen, and to study living cells. It can analyse bonds in complex materials, biological materials, minerals and the structure of semi-conductors. It offers very fast throughput of mineral samples. Energy range: 0.4 µm to 100 µm Energy resolution: · microscope resolution (mid-IR) = 0.2 cm-1 · high resolution FTIR resolution (far-IR) = 0.001 cm-1 Nominal beam size at sample (microscope): from 3 x 3 µm to 8 x 8 µm Links for more informationhttp://www.synchrotron.vic.gov.au/content.asp?Document_ID=490 http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/synchrotron_techniques/imaging11.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_spectroscopy Photos and captions
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