The LUX team at DESY is celebrating not just one but two milestones in the development of innovative plasma accelerators. The scientists from the University of Hamburg and DESY used their accelerator to test a technique that allows the energy distribution of the electron beams produced to be kept particularly narrow. They also used artificial intelligence to allow the accelerator to optimize its own operation. The scientists are reporting their experiments in two papers published shortly after one another in the journal Physical Review Letters. "It's fantastic to see the speed with which the new technology of plasma acceleration is reaching a level of maturity where it can be used in a wide range of applications," congratulates Wim Leemans, Director of the Accelerator Division at DESY.