Microscopy With X-Rays

Reports from Stanford University and the General Electric Research Laboratory give new encouragement to the hope that some form of the x-ray microscope may one day be able to compete on a mature level with its older cousins, the light microscope and the electron microscope. The familiar optical microscope is limited to describing very thin and transparent specimen samples, or simply the surfaces of objects. The electron microscope, while capable of much higher magnifications, is also severely limited in that specimens to be examined must be prepared as extremely dry, thin slices which must furthermore be studied under conditions of high vacuum.