Synchrotron radiation, by virtue of its special beam characteristics (high flux, high brilliance, tuneable wavelength etc.), has revived interest in small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) for hard condensed matter and materials science. New techniques (ultra SAXS, grazing-incidence SAXS, X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy etc.) have been developed and new scientific themes tackled, ranging from metallurgy to nanotechnology.