According to the XFEL website, the laser “will allow scientists to map atomic details of viruses, film chemical reactions, and study the processes in the interior of plants.” By emitting so many tiny, high-energy X-ray pulses, the laser works very much like a movie camera, if movie cameras were capable of capturing high-speed phenomena at the atomic level.
The city of Hamburg, Germany, has been heralding the arrival of the device since Monday by shining five lasers toward its next-door neighbor Schenefeld — the location where the European XFEL will be housed.