The live lattices become visible in coherent synchrotron X-rays

We demonstrate a great potential of the method of phase contrast imaging for a study of muscles and animal organism in normal and pathological states. The method is applied to image biological tissues that have the unique feature of structure–translation symmetry of 0.1–10 μm periodicity. The cross-striated muscle is the most interesting example of such objects. The experiment was done using high-brilliant coherent X-rays, delivered by synchrotron radiation source of third generation (ESRF, Grenoble), and high-resolution 2D-detector.