Diamond Light Source inspires tales (From The Oxford Times)

Diamond Light Source inspires tales

7:10am Wednesday 12th September 2012 in News

THE £300m Diamond Light Source at Harwell is best known for pioneering scientific breakthroughs.

But the UK’s national synchrotron has now resulted in a collection of short stories.

The facility inspired a group of authors to create a series of stories, and the writers gathered last week, next to a large cutout alien, to pick up their prizes in the contest called Light Reading.

A new anthology has been published containing 20 of the best stories.

Dr Sarah Callaghan, 34, a scientific project manager at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, wrote a story called 28 Hours which is included in the anthology.

She said: “I found out about the story competition and decided to give it a shot.”

Corie Ralston, whose story The Sound of Science took first prize, flew from the USA to pick up her winnings, with fellow winners coming from across the UK to receive their prizes.

Ms Ralston, who works at the Advanced Light Source in California, said: “I was intrigued when I heard about the competition and feel very honoured to have won.”

Download the Light Reading anthology at light-reading.org