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.