The new technology is called Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT) and is an X-ray technique that allows whole organs to be imaged down to a resolution of 1 micron, or 100 times the resolution of a conventional CT scan. 

The imaging advance comes from a technological upgrade at the European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF). This cutting-edge particle accelerator was improved recently with what is dubbed the Extremely Brilliant Source upgrade (ESRF-EBS).

This EBS upgrade created the world's first fourth-generation synchrotron, making it the brightest X-ray source in the world. This increased X-ray performance by a factor of 100 in terms of "brilliance and coherence." And the X-rays generated by this device are 100 billion times brighter than what is found in a conventional hospital X-ray.