Allow me to explain, given that some of the stuff I do involves crap like this.
The SACLA is a SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Linear Accelerator. That’s a machine that produces a X-ray Laser Beam with an unusually small wavelength (in fact it’s the shortest to date for X-rays, reaching around 0.63 Angstrom, or 0.63 * 10 ^ -10 meters). Due to how stable, quick and precise it has to be, you require a lot of accelerators to get the beam to speed + energy required fed from an electron gun on the back. With these extremely quick electrons, then the electron beam has to go through “wigglers” or undulators to make the beam go from electrons blasting at high speeds to this high energy beam with the required features. Whatever’s on the end is what you want to shoot at.
What does a beam like this is used for? Mainly for Crystallography of extremely complex specimens, as in “nearing the complexity of living organisms”. If you get a sample that you want a concise model but do not wish to have it affected or destroyed withing the analysis, the beam will be small and quick enough to do a qualitative and quantitative analysis (“We know what shape this takes and what this reacts to”). By thinking of cells and viruses as extremely complex molecules, you can tinker with them in a way it will be specific to them without affecting those around it. It’s also an incredible tool for material engineering. The quickness also means that you can get the freeze frame of the material while it’s active on the conditions you require, so it’s like taking a 3d photo of this, only on a wavelength shorter than visible light itself.
Due to how quick this is, you can also use this technique to obtain 4D images, representing time itself as a 4th dimension to take several shots of the same object on different instances rather than do constant trials for let’s say, other wave lengths. You end up with interesting composites without having to charge the machine again and again.
“Why have I not heard of this so far?” Probably because the sheer advances aren’t necessarily applicable to a consumer level and that the cost for requesting a trial of the machine for one blast is rather expensive, due to the maintenance costs and required energy usage. And you might have seen the last paragraphs and scratching your head at it. It’s not exactly something sexy you can easily get the public excited for, probably why SACLA choose to anthropomorphize the device on that cartoon over there.
