The Synchrotron is located in Clayton, Melbourne — near Monash University. This customised multi-storey building contains a particle accelerator ring that is 261 metres in circumference.

The Australian Synchrotron is one of several particle accelerators located around the world, part of a family that includes the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Prior to 2007, Australia did not have a large particle accelerator for scientific research — unlike the US, UK and Canada. In order to complete the project, the Victorian government invested AU$157 million.

A diagram of the synchrotron. The synchrotron uses two particle accelerator rings to bring electrons to 99.9 per cent of the speed of light. The electrons are then subject to magnetic fields that make them give off photons, the particles that make up light. This high intensity light, ranging in spectrum from x-rays to infra-red, can be used for all kinds of imaging, including viewing chemicals down to an atomic scale.

The diagram shows the various parts of the synchrotron. The first part is a linear accelerator, labelled "1", which give the electrons an initial push. The inner ring, labelled "2", uses radio waves to accelerate the electrons to near-light speed.

"Think of the electrons as a surfboard on a wave," explained Richard Farnsworth, head of controls and IT at the Australian synchrotron. The surfing electrons are then transferred into an outer ring for storage. From here they are used to generate the synchrotron light used for research.

This is the view looking out over the floor of the synchrotron from the circular gantry that surrounds the giant machine. The two construction works stand on the outermost storage ring, which has a circumference of 216 metres. While the synchrotron is online and currently being used for experiments, several parts of it are still being built. Construction workers and scientists mix together on the synchrotron floor.

In the background of the image you can see the inner ring, which is 130 metres in circumference.

This image shows the circular gantry that surrounds the synchrotron. On the bottom right of the image is one of the imaging centres, where the beam leaves the storage ring and is blasted onto samples in order to image them.

This display shows the status of the synchrotron beam. The current beam has been circulating for just under 58 hours.

The displays also shows which imaging stations are currently online. At the time of the picture, the synchrotron was being used for experiments including protein crystallography and x-ray adsorption spectroscopy.

This is the control centre, which runs 16 Linux machines with a custom built interface on top of CentOS. It also uses what Farnsworth described as "out of the packet", synchrotron software.

While running, Farnsworth described how about 35,000 individual variables are measured, 25,000 of which are archived. How much data does the synchrotron generate? "About a pentabyte this week," Farnsworth said.

Here is another view of the synchrotron floor. Looking out you can see a lab where the beamline leaves the accelerator so it can be used to make measurements.

Farnsworth says as many as 20 beamlines can be split off the synchrotron to be used for experimentation. Currently, the synchrotron distributes its data to the scientific community via AARNet. However, in the future they are looking to install dedicated fibre to the facility, along with a three- or four-teraflop supercomputer.

Two scientists hard at work on infra-red spectroscopy using a beamline from the synchrotron. Photography of the instrumentation was impossible, because the flash would damage the sensitive optical equipment.

Isn't this what scientific equipment is meant to look like? In fact, it looks so much like real science that it was used in a film set.

This famous piece of equipment is for surface mapping using soft x-rays.

This is the view when standing on top of the outer storage loop of the synchrotron. Silver and red pipes spread everywhere, and this image shows the myriad of valves at any given junction.

While many of the pipes were used for air-conditioning, some of the valves where thick with frost from periodic discharges of liquid nitrogen.

Air-conditioning within the building is very precise. Temperature must be kept within one degree of 21 degrees Celsius. The synchrotron needs to be continuously calibrated to ambient temperature.

This blue displays shows the internal pressure within the synchrotron beam vessel, shown here to be 1.9E-10 millibar, around one millionth of an atmosphere. That's close to the vacuum of deep space. Pressure must be kept at such extremes because electrons in the particle accelerator can't be allowed to hit stray gas molecules.

This is the entry to the internal area within the particle accelerator which contains the beamline. You won't want to go in, the blue light indicates that the area is flooded with x-rays — dangerous radiation. The synchrotron has multiple safety systems, people entering the linear accelerator must display the key to the camera, and return it to the storage unit when leaving (the red box below the phone). Only when all the keys are in place can the system be fired up.

These radio-frequency (RF) generators are used to accelerate the electrons in the beamline. They draw on average around one kilowatt of power each. According to Farnsworth, the synchrotron eats up between one-third and one-quarter of the power used by Monash University.

Farnsworth says that's about the same as an average factory, pointing out that the synchrotron is a "scientific factory". "It's not a toy," he said.

It appears Toshiba makes more than just laptops.

This is the centre of the inner-ring of the particle accelerator, known as the "bull ring". It was here that Farnsworth described the meticulous process involved in bringing a particle accelerator online. The steel container which holds the beamline must be baked at high temperature to remove contaminants before assembly.

If something goes wrong with the beamline it can pierce the side of the vessel, in which case the whole system needs to be reassembled.

After months of work, Farnsworth said the moment when the synchrotron comes online is known as "first light". What happens then? "We have a big party," he said.

In order to achieve the extreme vacuum in the beamline chamber, special vacuum pumps — known as "ion pumps" — are used. Here are half a dozen of them in a crate.

Ion pumps use charged plates to trap gas molecules "like fly paper", according to Farnsworth. Plates are thrown away once they become saturated with molecules. This takes "about 20 years".

This is a power supply. According to Farnsworth, the availability of power is a big variable in the synchrotron.

It's also the only system in the whole facility that runs Windows, running on an embedded version of Windows CE. "It just doesn't have the same reliability we are getting out of our Linux systems," said Farnsworth, noting that many similar systems at the synchrotron ran on an embedded version of Debian Linux.

Thick lead bricks lay strewn in piles throughout the facility. "They're for shielding equipment, particularly electronics," Farnsworth explained. The synchrotron produces considerable radiation, including powerful x-rays.

A close-up view of the synchrotron equipment. The aluminium foil is put on the equipment prior to baking it, which vaporises contaminants.

Demand for experimental time on the synchrotron has well exceeded supply. Farnsworth estimated that beamtime is worth about AU$50,000 a day.