In Nature Communications, the researchers report the use of ultrafast pulses that partially reverse the damage they generate. This trade-off has shaped X-ray imaging for decades. This so-called “electronic bleaching” has long been considered an unavoidable limitation of high-resolution X-ray imaging. To achieve this, the researchers illuminated neon nanoparticles with newly available X-ray pulses lasting only a few hundred attoseconds. In addition, the X-ray signal from the attosecond pulses was significantly stronger even though the sample was ionized less.