X-rays are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation that passes through soft tissue while being absorbed by denser material such as bone, making them the basis of medical radiography. They were discovered on 8 November 1895 by the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, who produced the first X-ray medical image, of his wife's hand, within weeks of the finding and provisionally named the radiation after the mathematical symbol for an unknown quantity.
Facts
Discovery Year Discovery Date DiscovererWilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a German physicist at the University of Wurzburg, discovered X-rays on 8 November 1895; credit is essentially uncontested, and he received the first Nobel Prize in Physics ever awarded, in 1901, for the finding. 3 Classification
Type/Classification Connections
Associated With
Cancer, Conditions X-ray imaging is foundational to cancer diagnosis and staging, and ionizing radiation itself became a cancer treatment, radiotherapy, within years of Rontgen's 1895 discovery.
Source The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of HumanityRoy Porter
Rontgen's 1895 discovery of X-rays rapidly became indispensable to orthopedic diagnosis of fractures and skeletal deformities.
Source German scientist discovers X-rays
Radiology began with Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen's 1895 discovery of X-rays.
Source German scientist discovers X-rays
Tuberculosis, Conditions Chest radiography became central to tuberculosis diagnosis and to twentieth-century mass screening campaigns.
Source The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of HumanityRoy Porter
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.entity description, X-raysQuote, entity description, X-rays
X-rays are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation that passes through soft tissue while being absorbed by denser material such as bone, making them the basis of medical radiography.
2. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationDiscovery sectionQuote, Discovery section
On 8 November 1895, German physics professor Wilhelm Rontgen discovered X-rays while experimenting with Lenard tubes and Crookes tubes.
3. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity
Roy Porter, W. W. Norton and Company, 1997
German scientist discovers X-rays
HISTORY (A&E Television Networks)- Full article
- Associated With: Radiology
- Associated With: Orthopedic Surgery
View the Source Frequently Asked Questions
Who discovered X-rays, and when?
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, on 8 November 1895.
X-rays were discovered on 8 November 1895 by the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. Within weeks of the finding he produced the first X-ray medical image, of his wife's hand.
Why are they called X-rays?
He named them after the symbol for an unknown quantity.
Roentgen provisionally named the radiation after the mathematical symbol for an unknown quantity. X-rays are high-energy electromagnetic radiation that passes through soft tissue while being absorbed by denser material such as bone, which makes them the basis of medical radiography.
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