Experimental particle physics

The neutron temperature example is crucial: you just can't give the cross section of a target alone, the energy of the incoming beam also matters.

Good article: www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-supercollider-that-never-was/

Most important application: produce X-rays for X-ray crystallography.

Note however that the big experiments at CERN, like the Large Hadron Collider, are also synchrotrons.

List of facilities: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_synchrotron_radiation_facilities

Predecessor to the synchrotron.