Partnership generates bright ideas for photon science

Photon science, a spin-off of particle physics, has returned to its roots for help developing better, faster detectors. In late 1940s, scientists doing fundamental physics research at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York, noticed a bright arc of light coming from their particle accelerator. As a beam of electrons whipped around the accelerator’s circular track, photons trickled away like water from a punctured hose. At the time, this was considered a problem; the l...