SEEING THE LIGHT

Here I am sitting surrounded by tubes, pipes and wires and looking dreamy. I have a picture in my head of how the X-rays get to the sample, and how that relates to the properties of the sample I'm studying. It is like sewing. When you learn to sew, you have to learn to thread the machine and set the tension correctly, buy when you're sewing you aren't thinking about all the little loops the thread goes through. You're thinking about the project. I think of science as a method for generating and testing questions.

Elaine DiMasi, a project scientist, is shown here working in an experimental bay at the National Synchotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York.