Question: What is the synchroton and what is really important about it?

Bernard Ennis answered on 16 Nov 2015:

The synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator (like the one in CERN) and we use it to learn things about how steel works which would not be possible. In some processes (like during heating for example), the material changes very quickly and then we need to be able to measure these changes with enough accuracy. The synchrotron allows us to do this because the of the very high energies it produces, allowing us to collect a lot of data in a very short period of time.