The construction of a short pulse tunable x-ray laser source will be' a watershed for plasma-based and warm dense matter research. The areas we will discuss below can be separated broadly into warn dense matter (WDM) research, laser probing of near solid density plasmas, and laser-plasma spectroscopy of ions in plasmas. The area of WDM refers to that part of the density-temperature phase space where the standard theories of condensed matter physics and/or plasma statistical physics are invalid. Warm dense matter, therefore, defines a region between solids and plasmas, a regime that is found in planetary interiors, cool dense stars, and in every plasma device where one starts from a solid, e.g., laser-solid matter produced plasma as well as all inertial fusion schemes.