“The impact of shrinking accelerators can be compared to the evolution of computers that once occupied entire rooms and now can be worn around your wrist. This advance means we may be able to expand particle acceleration into areas and communities that previously had no access to such resources,” suggested Hommelhoff.

The reason for the foundation's support at this time underscores the transformational possibilities of such tech shrinkage. Observed Robert Kirshner, Ph.D., chief program officer of science at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, “this research is risky, but the Moore Foundation is not afraid of risk when a novel approach holds the potential for a big advance in science. Making things small to produce immense returns is what Gordon Moore did for microelectronics.”


New tech is often bulky. For example, consider lasers. "Early on, lasers were big – and they were inefficient, and they took all the power and water in your building to operate them," Byer told NPR. "They got more and more efficient because we converted to semiconductor lasers and solid state lasers – and all of a sudden, lasers then became everywhere."

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