Six real-world places a camera built for science ended up
16 Oct 2026
In 2006, colleagues at our Rutherford Appleton Laboratory set out to build a system that would allow scientists to study the chemical and structural makeup of materials using high-energy X-rays. At that point, we didn't know that the same camera system would go on to read ancient scrolls, screen airport baggage, or help treat cancer.
What is this camera?
The technology at the centre of this article is a family of energy-resolving X-ray detector cameras called HEXITEC, developed at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Unlike conventional X-ray detectors, which only record where a photon hits, this technology measures the precise energy delivered in that hit. This energy information gives us a window into the chemistry and structure of the object we are imaging. It’s a distinction that sounds superficial that turns out not to be.
Developing a new camera system from scratch, from initial concept to working instrument, is an endeavour that can span decades. It requires a kind of sustained investment that is rarely available outside of a public research environment. These investments in foundational technology tend to pay off in ways nobody was planning for, and the applications that matter most are often the ones nobody saw coming.
Twenty years on, here are six places this camera has made a difference.
1. Imaging that could change how diseases are diagnosed and treated
Cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, combined, affect approximately one in seven people in the UK. Developing new treatments and diagnostics for these conditions is central to improving lives around the world.
Medical device company MH3D Inc. has announced it will use this detector technology in their imaging systems. Their work focuses on applications in disease research, drug discovery and drug performance monitoring. Combining the latest therapeutic nuclear medicines with advanced diagnostic capabilities, the emerging field of theragnostics promises a precision medicine approach that is not possible with conventional detector technology.
MH3D has already delivered systems to research hospitals including Johns Hopkins in the United States and recently installed its first system in Europe. This collaboration is the product of a partnership spanning more than a decade with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A relationship that began in academia and has now reached commercial deployment.
The journey from precision science to precision medicine may not have been a short one, but the impacts will potentially last even longer.
A photo of Joshua Nagel-Smith, Diana Caprotti and Matt Wilson during a visit to MH3D to see the integration of the HEXITEC sensors into their alphaSPECT mini system.
2. Airport security screening
Standard X-ray scanners show us the shape of something in a bag, like the difference between a metal knife and a plastic one. Where they struggle is distinguishing between items with more subtle differences: marzipan and C4 explosive, for instance, look almost identical under conventional scanning. Using energy-resolving technology, we can read the chemical fingerprint of these items, telling the difference between a Christmas cake and a real threat.
The use of this technology for these applications has already been demonstrated in a laboratory setting, and active discussions are under way with security companies about deployment in baggage screening. Whilst time will tell what the future might hold for real-world deployment, this detector developed for synchrotron science has the potential to improve safety at travel hubs across the globe.
3. Research facilities from Harwell to NASA
From the modest beginnings of five academic institutes with the common goal of developing a UK-based capability in energy-resolving detectors, these cameras are now in use at Diamond Light Source, ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, and the Central Laser Facility. With that mission completed, we cast our net wider. The community of academic and commercial collaborators using the HEXITEC technology now numbers between 40 and 50 worldwide, with systems in operation at JASRI (SPring-8) in Japan, the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory in South Korea, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the USA, and NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
It is also a story about people: the early-career researchers and engineers, academics and technologists who have helped drive the technology forward, whose impact extends well beyond this one instrument. From the Head of the Multiscale X-ray Imaging Centre at The British Museum to companies building the next generation of medical imaging devices.
4. Ancient manuscripts nobody had been able to read for two thousand years
The fragment of the Herculaneum scroll that was imaged on the I12 beamline at Diamond using HEXITEC back in 2016.
The Herculaneum scrolls are Roman manuscripts that turned to charcoal in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Since their excavation in the eighteenth century, their contents remained a mystery, words buried in a lump of charcoal too charred to unroll.
X-ray imaging at synchrotrons has changed this. Over 8 years ago, Michael Drakopoulos, previously a beamline scientist at Diamond Light Source and an early adopter of this technology, alongside Professor Brent Seales from the University of Kentucky’s Digital Restoration Initiative, led early efforts in attempting to exploit the hidden information in the energy of X-rays passing through the scrolls to separate characters from charcoal.
The work demonstrated a promising technique for reading these documents without physical contact. The story received widespread attention, including a feature on 60 Minutes. It is not an application any of us would have predicted in 2006.
5. Recycling, batteries, and materials sorting
Industry has shown interest in the technology’s ability to identify materials by chemical signature rather than shape. Researchers have demonstrated that the detectors can detect unwanted plastic contamination in foodstuffs, and work is ongoing on applications in battery materials research and drug delivery.
In industrial sorting, the technology can distinguish between grades of metal, separating drinks-can aluminium from aviation-grade stock, for instance (a persistent challenge in manufacturing supply chains). Furthermore, HEXITEC has the potential to help with understanding and controlling the alloy solidification process. Ultimately, this could improve recycling and help reinforce the circular economy.
The power of this technology is that it allows advanced imaging techniques that were once limited to large science facilities to be delivered into the field in real-world applications. Working with academia and industry, we have demonstrated that this is possible, and we are now working together to make it a reality.
6. The next generation of synchrotrons
The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility completed its upgrade a decade ago. Diamond Light Source and others are now following suit, with investments of hundreds of millions of pounds producing beams significantly brighter than their predecessors. The detectors at the end of those beamlines need to keep pace.
Over the last five years, with support from STFC, BBSRC and the UK Government Office for Technology Transfer, we have begun work on the next generation of the detector – a camera that delivers all the benefits of the original but is able to work at the much higher X-ray brightness of modern facilities. It is a reminder that foundational technologies are just that: foundational. We learn from what has gone before and build on the experiences of our users. The programme that began in 2006 is still running, still evolving. And in twenty years’ time will likely be delivering impacts we cannot picture yet.
Behind the Scenes
Twenty years is a long time to track a single research programme. The EPSRC Basic Technology programme that initially funded this work did not set out to produce a camera for reading Roman scrolls or screening airport baggage. But it did set out to fund technology development with real-world applications, and that, it turns out, was exactly the right bet to make.
A group photo of the team responsible for the development of the HEXITEC-MHz camera system, the latest generation of the technology.
We extend a big thank you to everyone who has collaborated and contributed to our HEXITEC journey over the last two decades!
What has science done for us lately?
For more HEXITEC stories, check out our new Impactful Podcast episode from the STFC Business & Innovation Team.
