African synchrotron bid gathers pace

The effort to build a synchrotron in Africa is gaining momentum.

Its leading proponent, Prof Herman Winick told a conference in the US that a key meeting of scientists and officials has been scheduled for November.

A synchrotron is a big accelerator that produces powerful X-rays for research; apart from the Antarctica, Africa remains the only continent without one.

He said the effort will be modelled on a Middle East synchrotron which resulted from a landmark international collaboration.

Prof Winick, an eminent physicist from Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, highlighted the uneven scattering of the 50-plus light sources on a world map.

BBC