The paper below does a great job of elucidating the benefits of correlating soft x-ray tomography with super-resolution fluorescence microscopy in order to image the shape and location of actin filaments within the ultra structure of a cell.
From a physical size perspective (and given the season that’s in it), detecting an actin filament in a cell is an equivalent challenge to finding a specific needle in a Christmas tree. The challenge is made much easier if it’s possible to see through the whole Christmas tree structure and if the needle can be made to glow so that it’s quick and easy to identify it’s shape and location within the tree!
This correlative approach is a much more effective way of finding the desired needle than traditional techniques that require the Christmas tree branches to be sawn off and each branch individually inspected for the needle.
Correlative cryo-imaging of the cellular universe with soft X-rays and laser light used to track F-actin structures in mammalian cells
M. Koronfel, et. al, Acta Cryst, 2021