The particle accelerator and the peace process

A particle accelerator built on Jordanian soil will serve many countries in the Middle East, and may also contribute to the acceleration of peace. It is called Sesamy, and it offers promising research possibilities - and perhaps also a chance to promote research between enemy countries

"The Institute" magazine

Aladdin's magic word, "sesame", was required for this project to take off. But SESAME, the English acronym for "Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East", is nevertheless progressing according to the planned schedule.

This is a synchrotron facility being built on Jordanian soil, near Al-Balaqa University near the city of Salt, and is supposed to serve scientists from the countries of the region: Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, with other European countries participating as observers.

A synchrotron is an annular tube in which electrons move that are accelerated to a speed close to the speed of light, while emitting radiation of various wavelengths, including X-rays

("X-ray"). Research stations are located around the ring, where scientific experiments are carried out using the radiation emitted by the accelerated electrons. The synchrotron is indeed a type of particle accelerator, but for the scientists it is used as a kind of giant microscope that allows observing molecules and atoms. Sesamy will produce five radiation lines with characteristics that will suit research in nanotechnology, nuclear medicine, various types of spectroscopy, atomic and molecular physics, archeology, environmental sciences, and more.

In the field of structural biology, for example, the synchrotron may be used to decipher the three-dimensional spatial structure of proteins. Proteins are the main substances that make up and activate the bodies of all animals, microorganisms and plants on earth, including humans. To know how a certain protein binds to a molecule of another protein, or to some non-proteinaceous substance, its three-dimensional spatial structure must be discovered. To do this, the scientists crystallize the protein, and then bombard the crystal with strong radiation of an appropriate wavelength. When they measure and analyze the data of the scattered radiation after it hits the crystal, they can discover the structure of the molecules that make up that crystal. Discovering the structure of the protein molecule may help in understanding basic life processes, which may lead, among other things, to the development of new drugs.

Sesamy is defined as a synchrotron accelerator of the 2.5th generation, that is, its power reaches about 2.5 billion electron volts, but radiation-amplifying devices added to it allow it to function in some cases at an even higher power. There are currently three huge synchrotrons in the world, in Japan, the USA and France, as well as several facilities (some of which are under construction) on the scale of Sesame. The circumference of the accelerator ring is about 125 meters.

The idea to build a synchrotron accelerator that would serve the countries of the Middle East was first proposed by Prof. Herman Winnick from Stanford University, and was promoted by several Israeli scientists, including Prof. Irit Sagi and Prof. Yoel Sussman from the Department of Structural Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Prof. Sussman is one of the "customers" of the giant European synchrotron in Grenoble.

"I thought it would be much better if, at least in a certain part of the experiments, instead of flying five hours in one direction every time I want to conduct an experiment, I - and my friends - would also have the option of driving an hour and a half in a private car, conducting an experiment, and returning home in the evening," he says. In the end, the signal for the feasibility of the project was given in 1997, when in Germany it was decided to close an accelerator called 1-BESSY.

As an older brother sometimes bequeaths his used objects to his younger brothers, so the idea arose to donate the old accelerator to the countries of the Middle East, a donation that might help them find ways for scientific cooperation, which might lead (as it already happened in the past, for example in the relationship between Germany and Israel), to cooperation in other areas. On that occasion, it was also decided to upgrade the accelerator, so that it could serve scientists working at the forefront of science.

After choosing the site, in a "good place in the middle" of the Middle East, a place that many of the area's scientists can reach with a not too long drive in a normal car, the construction of the facility began in 1998. If everything progresses as planned, it will begin operating in 2009.

Already today, even before the accelerator started operating, it is clear that this is a project that illustrates international cooperation in the fields of science. The technical director of the project is the Italian Dr. Gaetano Vignola. Jordanians, Palestinians, Iranians, Moroccans and Turks work together with him. The chairman of the project board is Prof. Herwig Shofer from Switzerland, and its scientific director is Prof. Khaled Toukan, who simultaneously serves as Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Jordan. Prof. Irit Sagi, from the Weizmann Institute of Science, is a member of the international steering committee of the project, and scientists from the countries of the region, who may be the main consumers of the facility, visit it from time to time and are regularly updated on the progress of the project.

Regional science workshops that are held from time to time have already led to the development of a kind of network of the peoples of the region, and the establishment of an international program for the exchange of young scientists and students, which exposes the students from the Arab countries to what is happening at the forefront of global science. Israel's willingness to participate in the project and invest in it is seen as a confidence-building step, indicating peaceful intentions. Thus, more than 50 years after the death of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of the State of Israel and of the Weizmann Institute of Science, practical steps are being taken to promote his scientific-political vision regarding the role of science in bringing peace to our region.