Viral pathogens like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus change the interior structure of the cells they infect. Extremely powerful imaging techniques are needed to visualise these changes, but such methods are very data- and time-intensive. A German-American research team under the direction of Dr Venera Weinhardt from Heidelberg University recently optimised a special X-ray process – known as soft X-ray tomography – to deliver high-resolution three-dimensional images of entire cells and their molecular structure in just a few minutes.