One London family

Flabbergasting number of people believe that if you have a bulky camera, you are a photographer. Not a terrorist. The charm of the device is so strong that some hypnotized souls even invite you to take their pictures at the brightest moments of their lives. This is how we got to a pretty southern suburbia, classical detached house where M. was preparing to her wedding day. A family of Subcontinental origin with some West Indian threads woven in were about to celebrate addition of an Armenian son-in-law. This is London. Err... London plus some Californian cousins. Loved this session.

































On the next day the bridegroom had to find his name written somewhere here:



I hope he did.

Diamond Light Source

A few weeks ago we had a chance to step inside a synchrotron. This one:


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And we did. Proofpic:



Oh, no. This one is better, more sciency:



Here we went. On the visitors day, for free and for fun.

Unlike CERN, Diamond is not a particle collider. Quite moderate in size, it accelerates particles in order to produce a light beam, which is used for analysis of materials. Nothing on beyond-imagination fundamental particle physics, lots of quite down-to-earth practical problems, examples of which can be found on really friendly Diamond's website. There is also the academic Diamond's website, without flash games.

Structure.

This is the electron gun, initial shooting device, a bit more powerful that we used to have in my mom's CRT TVset:



Then electrons are accelerated in linear accelerator and then shot into the nicely curving main ring:



The main ring is placed in the gigantic concrete trench covered with concrete slabs:



The slabs can be removed ans placed back, but only in particular order, and here is the sign of the slab to start/end with (not a sign of some lost wedding with superstitious anticipation of a divorce):



The main ring consists mostly of focusing (red) and bending

(green) magnets:
[UPD: Thank you Cedric! Unfortunately, I am not as gifted as Julius Cesar, who was able to learn about electron beams and take photos at the same time. :(]



Nicely curving:



Then the electrons are wiggled in the Russian-born wiggler (bloody foreigners are coming here and wiggle our electrons, bastards):





to produce the light. The light comes to the experiment cameras, hits materials first and photo-sensors second. Here is the small experiment camera:



And the big one:



With a gentleman who showed us around on the platform for materials:



As far as I understood his role in the Diamond was that one in the right bottom corner:

Most of the experiments taking place in Diamond are catering academical needs. However, ~10% are commercial. For example, some bike producer wanted to analyse processes taking place in the working engine. Nothing is impossible, welcome on the platform:



The cost of usage depends, obviously, on the time one need for their experiments, although a single crystal shot cost may start as low as £700.

Although, one of the institutions did not take a single second of the precious time to make their images. Women's Institute's textiles based on images received from Diamond were exhibited in the hall. And they were fun as well.



Some more assorted pictures:

Open London 2011 - Foreign Office

Open London is like the World Cup - long waiting, short and intense event, long discussion turning into waiting.  Photos from Open London-2011 are still bubbling in my reader: fellow nosy folks are still publishing their catch. Shall I join.

One of the top "easy and rewarding" walks on Open London is The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and India Office. Centrally located, huge and very well organised, it was able to meet 20,000 visitors this year (oh, by the way, the BT tower from the previous post faced 30,000 ballot applications - we were dead lucky!). By well organised I mean no significant queues, plenty of information stands, and even some informational treasure hunt!

Here is the Durbar court with stands telling about the scope and objectives of the FCO, including stories about hard life of diplomats. Can you imagine, consulate staff had to assemble their own furniture in Yekaterinburg!



The most surprising thing for me about the building was the plans to demolish it in 1960s. The derelict beast was too expensive in maintenance and took too much space - exactly like Alexandra Palace in the north. The protesting public saved the building, and even found funds to restore interiors in all their glory.





Is it a natural architects' trick for churches and palaces - to overload ceilings with decorations to keep visitors constantly look up and through that feel belittled?











The chamber I liked the most, ambassadors waiting room. The time stopped there.