X-rays were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Roentgen, a discovery that was to bring him the first Nobel Prize for physics. (No, I’m not really going to trespass on Marcus’s territory! Well, not for long.) Like many other scientists of the time, Roentgen was experimenting with electtrifying the thin gases in vacuum tubes. One night he noticed that a fluorescent screen at one end of his lab glowed each time he ran a current through his vacuum tube. The screen continued to glow when Roentgen placed sheets of card, copper, or aluminium between tube & scrreen, but stopped when these were replaced by lead. This must have been startling enough, but he must really have been blown away to see the bones of his hand show up on the screen when his hand passed through the invisible rays emitted from the electrified vacuum tube. Roentgen had discovered X-rays.
Today X-rays are used in a wide range of applications. The structure of DNA was elucidated through X-ray diffraction photographs. Airport security systems use them to detect various proscribed items in travellers’ baggage. (Recent developments in this area have led to concerns that customs officers might see more of a traveller than modesty might permit.) And of course there are the medical applications of X-rays, along with their more sophisticated spin-off, the CT (or computerised tomography) scan. CT scans are a signifcant medical tool, but they’ve also allowed scientists to examine some truly ancient indiviuals: CT scans of a Homo floresiensis cranium have been used to build a ‘virtual endocast’ that models the indivdiual’s brain & has been used to attempt to determine its affinities.
And where is this heading? Well, I now have a lovely X-ray of my left foot that shows very clearly what happens when your little toe connects at speed with a door jamb. The proximal phalanx of my little toe (that’s the toe bone closest to the bones of the foot itself) is in 2 quite distinct parts. Ouchy ouch ouch! I must wear a moon shoe for the next few weeks,and the dog is Not Pleased. Not pleased at all.
Renee says:
Oh dear – poor you! At least 80s fashion is back at the moment, so moon boots are probably ‘in’.
I’d never thought about the moment of x-ray discovery – it certainly would have been odd to suddenly see beneath your own skin.
Alison Campbell says:
I quite like looking at X-rays 🙂 At least with bones they’re fairly easy to interpret; I am enormously impressed by those who can make sense of things like mammograms!
Stephen says:
Do you remember the recent Waikato NIWA Science Fair entry (1st in the open inventions & technical innovations category) that was designed to prevent accidents of just this type? It was a pressure activated door jamb lighting device–perhaps you could commission your own “magic carpet” 🙂
Alison Campbell says:
Indeed I do remember it – twas a cunning device 🙂 I don’t think it would have helped, though, as it was broad daylight when I did my toe in. I just wasn’t looking where I was putting my feet 🙁
tiffany earrings says:
Oh dear – poor you! At least 80s fashion is back at the moment, so moon boots are probably ‘in’.
I’d never thought about the moment of x-ray discovery – it certainly would have been odd to suddenly see beneath your own skin.