Just outside Oxford in southern England is an extraordinary machine: Diamond Light Source - the UK's synchrotron. Inside this massive building electrons are accelerated to near the speed of light, creating a type of giant microscope which allows scientists to examine matter in minute detail, revealing the atomic structure of the world around us. The first solid matter known to have ever formed was cosmic dust. Researchers are recreating cosmic dust in their lab to analyse it and ask some big questions about the origins of life.