X-Ray Photography

An X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation with a very short wavelength, in the range 10 to o.o1 nanometers. German physicist Wilhelm Rontgen (1845-1923) was experimenting with cathode rays in 1895 when he realized that these produced another form of radiation when they hit the glass of the cathode ray tube. He called them X-rays, as 'X" stands for the unknown in mathematics.
        Rontgen discovered that X ray passed through soft materials, such as paper, card, and fabric and produced fluorescence and can be used to form images on a barium-coated photographic plate.His next experiments involved human tissue. He asked his wife to put her hand on the photographic plate and discovered that the X-rays passed through the flesh,but not through her bones, or her ring. Rontgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901.
        X-rays are a form of ionizing radiation, causing ions to be produced from the atoms that they hit,which is why they produce fluorescence. It was not known until the 1950s that X-rays can damage living cells, causing cancer. Some, but not all, who worked with X- rays before this, including Rontgen, protected  themselves from the radiation by using lead shields.
        We now take for granted the crucial role X-rays perform in medical diagnosis, and this application developed rapidly after Rontgen's initial discovery. X-rays also proved invaluable to crystallographers who used the scatter-patterns to investigate the structure of materials. Soon after their discovery, the harmful effects of X-rays were also harnessed to develop radiographic treatments for cancer.