The Diamond Synchrotron

A synchrotron is a cyclic particle accelerator that uses an electric field to accelerate the particles to high speed and a magnetic field to turn the particles so they circulate. One particular synchrotron, called the Diamond Synchrotron, located in the UK is so powerful that it can produce light 10 billion times brighter than the sun.

How is such an intensity reached? the particle accelerator shoots electrons down a straight tube to a circular chamber where they gain energy and speed close to the speed of light. Some of these electrons travel through beam lines, where light passes through. The Diamond Synchrotron is capable of producing light from the entire spectrum.

With light this bright, ancient texts that are damaged so much that they can't be read can possibly be read without even having to flip through the pages. Scientist as already successfully done this with texts that were written with iron gall ink. These texts are readable thanks to the powerful X-rays the synchrotron emits. These X-rays can produce a 3D image of the text so it can be read. Some ancient text are written on animal skin composed of collagen. Over time this collagen decomposes into gelatin and results in a loss of the text. The synchrotron can be used to determine how much collagen has decomposed into gelatin.

did I mention that the Diamond Synchrotron is as big as 5 soccer fields?

http://science.howstuffworks.com/synchrotron.htm