X-rays are a type of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, also called X-rays. X-rays are useful for a variety of purposes including identifying fractures or fractures, ailments, and even allowing security guards to find people’s hidden weapons as they pass through security checkpoints. The scientist who discovered X-rays was Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895. The first X-rays were taken on one of his wife’s hands, including her wedding ring. X-rays are very useful in medicine and are not only the oldest, but also the most widely used type of imaging. Too much energy for X-rays can be harmful to your health. When Wilhelm Röntgen mentioned the X-ray process, he meant that X represented the unknown because the technology fascinated him so much.
The “X” in X-ray stands for the unknown, just as x stands for an unknown quantity in mathematics.
Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays by accident. He was experimenting with some vacuum tubes when he made the discovery.
During World War I, X-rays were already being used for medical purposes, including locating bullets in the human body.
Wilhelm Roentgen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention in 1901.
X-rays were originally considered completely safe to the body, even though x-ray technicians would often suffer burns.
Wilhelm’s wife was not impressed by her husband’s invention. After seeing the image of her hand she said “I have seen my death.”
The first person to die from x-ray radiation exposure was Thomas Edison’s assistant, Clarence Dally, who had worked extensively with X-rays. He died of skin cancer in 1904.
The X-ray has led to many advances in medicine, and its inventor Wilhelm refused to take out a patent because he wanted everyone to benefit from its use.
X-ray technology can be used for elemental analysis and chemical analysis, determining the materials and layers in art objects, buildings, archaeological finds, and more.
X-ray refers to the method used to obtain the image and to the image itself.
Diamonds don’t show up on X-rays.
X-ray is spelled many different ways including xray, X ray, X-ray, and x-ray.
X-rays and radio waves (all electromagnetic radiation) travel at the speed of light in a vacuum (186,000 miles/second).
Wilhelm Roentgen used a zinc box and lead box, when taking x-rays. He did this to protect photographic plates also stored in his lab from being destroyed. He was unaware that this protected him as well. Too much exposure to X-rays can cause cancer.
X-rays have discovered very strange items in pets and human bodies, including pennies and socks swallowed by dogs, gun pellets that were accidentally swallowed, or all manner of awful items puncturing the skull or abdomen.
Scientists that were not yet aware of the dangers of exposure to X-rays often suffered burns, radiation sickness, loss of hair, and cancers.
In a 2009 Science Museum of London poll, the X-ray was voted the most important modern scientific discovery.
Clarence Dally is the first person known to have died from exposure to X-rays. He worked on Thomas Edison’s X-ray light bulb for many years and developed cancerous lesions. This resulted in the amputation of both hands, and his early death at only 39.
X-rays can be divided into hard X-rays and soft X-rays.
As x-rays pass through the body some of the waves are blocked and some pass through, allowing certain images to appear.
In the early 1950s, a British researcher name Rosalind Franklin took the x-ray photos that first showed DNA’s structure, but died before she could share the Nobel Prize with the men more generally given credit for discovering the shape of the “secret of life”—James Watson and Francis Crick.
There are a variety of X-rays used today in addition to the ones used for identifying broken bones and fractures, including contrast x-rays, CT scans, fluoroscopy, dental x-rays, mammograms.
Barium is a substance that is often used with X-rays.
Ultrasound and MRI imaging techniques are not X-ray methods and do not expose the patient to the level of radiation of an X-ray.
X-rays helped us learn more about the structure of DNA and its helix shape.
Because X-rays can be dangerous to a developing fetus, pregnant women are not supposed to have X-rays. Exposure during pregnancy can lead to birth defects and childhood leukemia.
X-rays allowed doctors to see shadows and spots on the lungs of the patient which were caused by the tuberculosis bacteria.
X-rays are known carcinogens. However they can be helpful in medical diagnosis and treatment.
William Roentgen did not patent the X-ray.
It is estimated that approximately 0.4% of the cancers in the United States are due to CT scans.
Some doctors used x-rays to burn off moles and growths on the patient’s skin.
At one time in the 1920s people tried to use X-rays to remove unwanted hair. It was eventually banned by the FDA because it resulted in serious health issues such as cancer.
