Witness an electron’s point of view from inside a particle accelerator.

I’ve spent years photographing rare and valuable instruments, most of them musical. But this is something else entirely.

The Australian Synchrotron from Above:
It’s a particle accelerator—specifically, the Australian Synchrotron, a scientific machine the size of an entire city block. It’s a place where electrons race at near-light speeds, bending to magnetic forces to produce beams of light a million times brighter than the sun, used to study everything from nano-tech to cultural heritage.

Inside the Cryogenic Undulator:

This particular section is the Cryogenic Undulator which is about to be attached to the main beamline. Once installed, it will be cooled, and placed under vacuum. It will not be opened again for at least 50 to 60 years. 

Despite being a scientific instrument, the cryogenic undulator behaves a lot like a musical instrument. Electrons are fired down this shaft in tight, synchronized pulses. The intensely powerful magnets on the lefthand side cause the particles to wiggle ever so slightly, much like the string of a fine cello.

That tiny movement sets off a cascade of electromagnetic harmonics—resonances that scientists use to probe the hidden structures of our universe.

If you translate the electromagnetic vibrations produced by the undulator into sound, you can hear what the process actually “sounds” like.

Listen to these two clips—this is science singing:

🎵 [WAV File 1] u17 sound 2MHz em converted to 1Hz pressurewaves
🎵 [WAV File 2] u22 sound 2MHz em converted to 1Hz pressurewaves

(courtesy of Eugene Tan, ANSTO)

To capture this hidden world, I used a medical laparoscope—normally reserved for surgery—adapted to a Lumix camera. This is the same technique I use to photograph rare musical instruments, peering inside spaces no human eye would otherwise see.

Photographing the Cryogenic Undulator with a 5mm Laparoscope:

Each photograph is a combination of hundreds of individual frames, blended using focus-stacking and panorama techniques to bring out every fine detail from the foreground to infinity.

This photography session was an extremely rare opportunity, and I'd like to thank the friendly and helpful staff at the Australian Synchrotron, especially Eugene Tan, Senior Accelerator Physicist, who's idea this was in the first place!