The James Webb Space Telescope[3] will have 18 hexagonal beryllium sections for its mirrors. Because JWST will face a temperature of −240 degrees Celsius (30 kelvins), the mirror is made of beryllium, a material capable of handling extreme cold better than glass. Beryllium contracts and deforms less than glass — and thus remains more uniform — in such temperatures. For the same reason, the optics of the Spitzer Space Telescope are entirely built of beryllium.

Beryllium is also used in the Joint European Torus fusion research facility, to condition the plasma facing components

Beryllium has also been used in tweeter construction by the company Focal-JMlab on its flagship Utopia Be series as an alternative to titanium and aluminium, largely due to its lower density and greater rigidity.

Because of its low atomic number beryllium is almost transparent to energetic electrically charged particles. Therefore it is used to build the beam pipe around the collision region in collider particle physics experiments. Notably all four main experiment at the Large Hadron Collider accelerator (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb) use a beryllium beam-pipe.

Isotopeshttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ty_Proxies.png Plot showing variations in solar activity, including variation in 10Be concentration.


Of beryllium's <A title=Isotope href="http://bibleocean.com/OmniDefinition/Isotope">isotopes, only 9Be is stable. Cosmogenic 10Be is produced in the atmosphere by cosmic ray spallation of oxygen and nitrogen. Because beryllium tends to exist in solution at pH levels less than about 5.5 (and most rainwater has a pH less than 5), it will enter into solution and be transported to the Earth's surface via rainwater. As the precipitation quickly becomes more alkaline, beryllium drops out of solution. Cosmogenic 10Be thereby accumulates at the soil surface, where its relatively long half-life (1.51 million years) permits a long residence time before decaying to 10B. 10Be and its daughter products have been used to examine soil erosion, soil formation from regolith, the development of lateritic soils, as well as variations in solar activity and the age of ice cores.The fact that 7Be and 8Be are unstable has profound cosmological consequences as it means that elements heavier than beryllium could not be produced by nuclear fusion in the Big Bang. Moreover, the nuclear energy levels of 8Be are such that carbon can be produced within stars, thus making life possible. (See triple-alpha process and Big Bang nucleosynthesis).The shortest-lived known isotope of beryllium is 13Be which decays through neutron emission. It has a half-life of 2.7 × 10-21 seconds. 6Be also is also very short-lived with a half-life of 5.0 × 10-21 seconds.The exotics 11Be and 14Be are known to exhibit a nuclear halo.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...oil_square.jpg A square beryllium foil mounted in a steel case to be used as a window between a vacuum chamber and an <A title=\"X-ray microscope\" href="http://bibleocean.com/OmniDefinition/X-ray_microscope">X-ray microscope. Beryllium, due to its low Z number is highly transparent to X-rays.

Some people (1-15%) become sensitive to beryllium. These individuals may develop an inflammatory reaction that principally targets the respiratory system and skin. This condition is called chronic beryllium disease (CBD), and can occur within a few months or many years after exposure to higher than normal levels of beryllium (greater than 0.02 µg/m³). This disease causes fatigue, weakness, night sweats and can cause difficulty in breathing and a persistent dry cough. It can result in anorexia, weight loss, and may also lead to right-side heart enlargement and heart disease in advanced cases. Some people who are sensitized to beryllium may not have any symptoms. The disease is treatable but not curable. CBD occurs when the body's immune system recognizes beryllium particles as foreign material and mounts an immune system attack against the particles. Because these particles are typically inhaled into the lungs, the lungs becomes the major site where the immune system responds. The lungs become inflamed, filled with large numbers of white blood cells that accumulate wherever beryllium particles are found. The cells form balls around the beryllium particles called "granulomas." When enough of these granulomas develop, they interfere with the normal function of the organ. Over time, the lungs become stiff and lose their ability to help transfer oxygen from the air into the bloodstream. Patients with CBD develop difficulty inhaling and exhaling sufficient amounts of air and the amount of oxygen in their bloodstreams falls. Treatment of such patients includes use of oxygen and medicines that try to suppress the immune system's over-reaction to beryllium. A class of immunosuppressive medicines called glucocorticoids (example: prednisone), is most commonly used as treatment. The general population is unlikely to develop acute or chronic beryllium disease because ambient air levels of beryllium are normally very low (0.00003-0.0002 µg/m³).

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a beryllium sphere, Brilliant!!!!

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This is a reflected light micrograph of polished, carbon coated beryllium wire. The identifying etched label, which is a feature of our standards, is invaluable for navigating in an electron beam instrument.

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Ping
ISI Beryllium Copper
Iron set

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Beryllium x-ray lenses

X-ray optics has become a widely applied field for researchers using X-rays delivered from synchrotron light sources for their various experiments.
Existing optical devices are of the type of X-ray mirrors, tapered capillaries or Fresnel zone plates.
Refractive lenses, however, like in the visible light optics, were not available in the past.
The refraction coefficient and the low absorption for x-rays make Beryllium an ideal candidate for refractive lenses.

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Beryllium copper washers, what every geek needs.

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Beryllium, the new crack???

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Beryllium's cellular assault

Researchers at the Laboratory, seeking to better understand the pathology of chronic beryllium disease are studying the fundamental properties of metal interaction with carboxylate molecules, carbon/oxygen structures that are common in the body, to better understand how metals, specifically beryllium in water solution, might attack human cells.