In this podcast episode, MRS Bulletin’s Sophia Chen interviews Ashley Bucsek from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor about her laboratory-scale three-dimensional (3D) x-ray diffraction (XRD) microscope to replace studies done in synchrotron facilities. A key element of the design is the material used to make the x-rays. Instead of using a solid metal as a target, Bucsek’s research group used a liquid metal source to generate the x-rays, thereby circumventing melting. Among the advantages of miniaturizing the microscope are its immediate availability and the possibility of conducting long-term studies. This work was published in a recent issue of Nature Communications.