![]() It is interesting to note that, for personal ethical reasons, Röntgen refused to take out patents on his discovery of X-rays, as he wanted society, as a whole, to benefit from their practical applications. He realised that X-rays provided a non-invasive method to investigate inside the body. Röntgen was quick to see the medical implications and opportunities of his discovery, as the famous first X-ray image of his wife Anna’s hand on 22 December 1895 shows. It is amazing to note that in the first quarter of the 20th century, almost half of the Nobel prizes awarded were connected to contributions in this area. Since the discovery of X-rays, their use for analysis and diagnostics have been some of the most widely researched areas in science and engineering. This discovery was recognised in 1901 when Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel prize for Physics. However, in many languages to this day they are still known as Röntgen rays. Röntgen called his discovery X-rays to indicate that it was, then, an unknown type of radiation. However, it was Röntgen that first saw their effect and which he described in his paper “On A New Kind of Rays” that was published on 28 December 1895. This would mean that X-rays would have been produced by experimenters from as early as 1875, when Crookes tubes, and their like, were first created. They were first discovered on 8 November 1895 when Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen stumbled across their effects to create images on fluorescent screens, and subsequently on photographic plates, at a distance from an optically hidden Crookes, or similar, tube. Not a bad legacy for an accidental discovery.X-rays are a penetrating form of high energy electromagnetic radiation that are located between the UV and gamma rays in the electromagnetic spectrum. And while X-rays remain a cornerstone of modern medicine, their discovery paved the way for the development of today’s broad spectrum of imaging techniques, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), ultrasound, echocardiography, and many others - some of which avoid the use of radiation altogether. We now have a far better understanding of the risks associated with X-ray radiation and have developed protocols to greatly minimize unnecessary exposure. But overall, early use of X-rays was widespread and unrestrained, even to the degree that during the 1930’s and 1940’s, shoe stores offered free X-rays so that customers could see the bones in their feet. ![]() Morton, each of whom reported injuries they believed resulted from experiments with X-rays. There were a few early suspicions from scientists including Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and William J. Honors for his work poured in-including the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901.Ĭlinical use of the X-ray flourished, with little regard for potential side effects from radiation exposure. News of his discovery spread worldwide, and within a year, doctors in Europe and the United States were using X-rays to locate gun shots, bone fractures, kidney stones and swallowed objects. Roentgen quickly found that X-rays would pass through human tissue too, rendering the bones and tissue beneath visible. Because he did not know what the rays were, he called them ‘X,’ meaning ‘unknown,’ rays. Through experimentation, he found that the mysterious light would pass through most substances but leave shadows of solid objects. His cathode tube was covered in heavy black paper, so he was surprised when an incandescent green light nevertheless escaped and projected onto a nearby fluorescent screen. Wilhelm Roentgen, Professor of Physics in Wurzburg, Bavaria, discovered X-rays in 1895-accidentally-while testing whether cathode rays could pass through glass. But not so long ago, a broken bone, a tumor, or a swallowed object could not be found without cutting a person open. We barely think about it, it’s so ubiquitous. Mammography, the standard screening method for breast cancer, uses X-rays. In today’s world, doctors order X-rays to diagnose all sorts of problems: a broken bone, pneumonia, heart failure, and much, much more.
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