It combines human knowledge and expertise with the speed and efficiency of “smart” computer algorithms.

Researchers have squeezed a high-energy electron beam into tight bundles using terahertz radiation, a promising advance in watching the ultrafast world of atoms unfold.

Just as engineers once compressed some of the power of room-sized mainframes into desktop PCs, so too have the researchers shown how to pack some of the punch delivered by today’s ginormous particle accelerators onto a tiny silicon chip.

The next revolutionary X-ray laser in a class of its own, LCLS-II, is under construction at SLAC, with support from four other DOE national laboratories.