In materials science an X-ray source that is hard and bright can open the door to a wealth of detail. At Diamond Light Source X-ray beams with wavelengths of 0.1–0.2 nm outshine the Sun by a factor of 10 billion. As the 7000th paper reporting results from experiments at Diamond Light Source went to press, Physics World took a look at what the facility offers for materials scientists working on samples from ice-cream and Rembrandt fragments to next-generation data-storage technologies, as well as some of the recently opened complementary instruments for the biological and physical sciences communities on site.