X-Ray microscope that enables nanovision developed

• Forget X-ray glases. Now, a new microscope has been developed by scientists which they say can penetrate deep within materials and see details as small as a billionth of a meter without even using a lens.
• The new microscope, developed by physicists at University of California, San Diego, uses a powerful computer programme to convert patterns from X-rays bouncing off materials into images of objects as small as a one nanometer across, on the scale of a few atoms.
• Unlike Superman''s X-ray vision, which allows him to look through walls to see the bad guys beyond, the new technology could be used to look at different elements inside a material, or to image viruses, cells and tissue in great detail, study researcher Oleg Shpyrko said.
• But one of the most important applications, Shpyrko said, is in nano-sized engineering.
• "We can make things at nanoscale, but we can''t see them very well. So our paper pushes the characterisation forward," he was quoted as saying by LiveScience.
• Astronomers use similar programmes to remove distortions from their images and even to sharpen the pictures sent back by the Hubble telescope, but the nanovision technique is new.