Shrinking the accelerator

Scientists plan to use a newly awarded grant to develop a shoebox-sized particle accelerator in five years. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded $13.5 million to Stanford University for an international effort, including key contributions from the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, to build a working particle accelerator the size of a shoebox. It's based on an innovative technology known as "accelerator on a chip." This novel technique, which uses laser lig...