X-Ray History—Hidden Kitten, Quackery, and More (Awesome photos), page 1

posted on Nov, 9 2010 @ 08:17 AM

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115-Year-Old X-Ray

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Image by Wilhelm Röntgen, via SSPL/Science Museum

This 115-year-old picture of fingers is one of the first images ever made with x-rays, whose discovery is being feted Monday with an anniversary Google doodle. (See "X-Rays on Google: Surprising Ways the Rays Are Used Today."). The hand belonged to Anna Bertha, wife of German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, the discover of x-rays. The black glob on the fourth finger is a ring made of gold, which absorbs x-rays.

Röntgen stumbled across x-rays on November 8, 1895, while experimenting with an early vacuum tube known as a Crooke's radiometer. He noticed that, when the cathode rays from the tube struck the end of a discharge tube, a previously unknown type of radiation that could penetrate matter was emitted.

Röntgen created the picture of his wife's hand using the unknown, or x, rays a few days later. "She apparently was not impressed by his photography," said Martin Richardson. According to some accounts, Anna exclaimed "I have seen my death!" after seeing the now famous image.

X-Rays Target Presidential Bullet

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A medical x-ray shows the rib cage of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt after an attempted assassination in 1912 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was campaigning. The nonfatal bullet was never removed.

This radiograph—a picture made on film that's sensitive to radiation other than visible light—shows that x-rays were already being used for medical imaging only 17 years after Wilhelm Röntgen's first experiments with the radiation.

X-Rays in Space

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Snapped by NASA's Einstein Observatory, which launched in 1978, this speckled image is one of the first x-ray space telescope images of a cosmic object ever taken. Also known as the High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO)-2, the Einstein Observatory was the largest x-ray telescope of its day. It was also the first one capable of producing actual photographs of x-ray objects.

More than a dozen x-ray telescopes have been launched into space so far. With their aid, astronomers have discovered x-ray sources far beyond our solar system, including distant galaxies and black holes. While black holes themselves emit no light, the environments immediately surrounding black holes are often so turbulent that they shine brightly in x-rays

Source: news.nationalgeographic.com... :01#

There are several more interesting X-Ray pics in the main article and at the additional link in the ariticle. Very impressive stuff. I think the days of the X-Ray are just beginning to be seen what they can do. I have always been impressed with the technology.

Ever since I broke my first bone and being taken in for an X-ray, the big lead coverings, the people all wearing heavy lead aprons. What a scene.

Now-a-days, not to bad. Pretty quiet compared to the days of old. Doesn't seem to be all the hub-bub with the lead coverings (They remain mostly hung on a hanger on the wall-makes sense to me).

Yes, X-rays have come a long way (Airports, security, medical) you name it. I am really facinated for the Space aspect of it. I will ahve to keep my eyes open for more of that stuff coming from NASA and the other countries.

Oh, can anyone expand on the one line in there about the ring in the first pic. The Gold ring aborbed the rays? Interesting.

4nsicphd

posted on Nov, 9 2010 @ 10:06 AM
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reply to post by anon72

You asked, "Oh, can anyone expand on the one line in there about the ring in the first pic. The Gold ring absorbed the rays? Interesting."

To understand this takes an understanding of photon-electron interactions. Start with an atom. An atom is a group of nucleons (protons and neutrons (each made up of 3 quarks)) surrounded by electrons. The electrons are in different discrete orbitals, each orbital having a distinct energy level. The ring was gold, so let's stick to that element. Gold is a big atom having 79 protons, 79 electrons, and 118 neutrons in its most common isotope. These 79 electrons have 6 different energy levels. Electrons can change energy levels. If an electron drops down a level, a photon of an energy level equal to the difference between electron levels is discharged. If you shoot a photon of an energy level equal to the difference in energy levels at an atom, it is absorbed and its energy raises an electron to the next level.
X-rays are photons. Because gold is a big atom and has a lot of different energy levels it can absorb a lot of xray photons. And it is dense, having a lot of those big, heavy atoms close together, so most of the x-ray photons are absorbed.
Oh yeah, the lead aprons..... X-rays can have enough energy to hit a home run and knock an electron completely out of the ballpark, creating an atom with 1 fewer electron. That's an ion. And the X-ray is called ionizing radiation because of that ability. Not all radiation is ionizing. Only the higher part of the electromagnetic spectrum, like UV, X-rays, and cosmic rays are ionizing. The lead apron is made of really really big, (82 electrons in 6 energy levels), really dense stuff so the x-rays are absorbed before they get to you and strip an electron off a hydrogen atom in your C4H5N3O, which is cytosine, one of the four base pair chemicals in your DNA.
A really good graphic about energy levels is at cas.sdss.org...

anon72

posted on Nov, 9 2010 @ 10:16 AM
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reply to post by 4nsicphd

Dam, I bow to you. Great stuff. Thank you for taking the time to prepare and present that.

You make it sound so easy.

Thanks again! (I wish I could give you a flag!)