The Advanced Photon Source: A national synchrotron radiation research facility at Argonne National Laboratory

The vision of the APS sprang from prospective users, whose unflagging support the project has enjoyed throughout the decade it has taken to make this facility a reality. Perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of synchrotron radiation research, is the extensive and diverse scientific makeup of the user community. From this primordial soup of scientists exchanging ideas and information, come the collaborative and interdisciplinary accomplishments that no individual alone could produce. So, unlike the solitary Roentgen, scientists are engaged in a collective and dynamic enterprise with the potential to see and understand the structures of the most complex materials that nature or man can produce--and which underlie virtually all modern technologies. This booklet provides scientists and laymen alike with a sense of both the extraordinary history of x-rays and the knowledge they have produced, as well as the potential for future discovery contained in the APS--a source a million million times brighter than the Roentgen tube