From the nearby hills it looks as if a giant flying saucer has landed in the English countryside. In fact, the doughnut-shaped steel structure, the size of London’s Wembley Stadium, is the biggest public science facility to be built in Britain for 30 years.

Diamond Light Source, as it is known, will produce X-ray, infrared and ultra- violet beams of exceptional brilliance. This highly focused radiation will enable scientists to probe deep into the basic structure of materials, with a vast range of applications from drug design to nanotechnology.