An X-ray microscope uses electromagnetic radiation in the X-ray band to produce magnified images of objects. Since X-rays penetrate most objects, there is no need to specially prepare them for X-ray microscopy observations. Unlike visible light, X-rays do not reflect or refract easily and are invisible to the human eye. Therefore, an X-ray microscope exposes film or uses a charge-coupled device (CCD) detector to detect X-rays that pass through the specimen. It is a contrast imaging technology using the difference in absorption of soft X-rays in the water window region (wavelengths: 2.34–4.4 nm, energies: 280–530 eV) by the carbon atom (main element composing the living cell) and the oxygen atom (an element of water). Microfocus X-ray also achieves high magnification by projection. A microfocus X-ray tube produces X-rays from an extremely small focal spot (5 μm down to 0.1 μm). The X-rays are in the more conventional X-ray range (20 to 300 keV) and are not re-focused. Invention and development The history of X-ray microscopy can be traced back to the early 20th century. After the German physicist Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, scientists soon illuminated an object using an X-ray point source and captured the shadow images of the object with a resolution of several micrometers. In 1918, Einstein pointed out that the refractive index for X-rays in most mediums should be just slightly less than 1, which means that refractive optical parts would be difficult to use for X-ray applications. Early X-ray microscopes by Paul Kirkpatrick and Albert Baez used grazing-incidence reflective X-ray optics to focus the X-rays, which grazed X-rays off parabolic curved mirrors at a very high angle of incidence. An alternative method of focusing X-rays is to use a tiny Fresnel zone plate of concentric gold or nickel rings on a silicon dioxide substrate. Sir Lawrence Bragg produced some of the first usable X-ray images with his apparatus in the late 1940s. In the 1950s Sterling Newberry produced a shadow X-ray microscope, which placed the specimen between the source and a target plate, this became the basis for the first commercial X-ray microscopes from the General Electric Company. After a silent period in the 1960s, X-ray microscopy regained people's attention in the 1970s. In 1972, Horowitz and Howell built the first synchrotron-based X-ray microscope at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator. This microscope scanned samples using synchrotron radiation from a tiny pinhole and showed the abilities of