X-Rays on Google: Surprising Ways the Rays Are Used Today
On its 115th anniversary, x-ray tech is "very far from a dead science."
(See x-rays turned into art by photographer Nick Veasey.)
On November 8, 1895, Röntgen (also spelled "Roentgen") was experimenting with vacuum tubes when he produced and detected the previously unknown type of radiation.
A few days later Röntgen made the first medical x-ray image in history by taking a picture that clearly revealed the bones of his wife's hand.
Medical imaging is still the best known use of x-rays, but scientists and engineers have devised a host of new uses for this uniquely penetrating form of light.
(See "Iceman Bled Out From Arrow Wound, X-Rays Reveal.")
Astronomers, for example, were quick to grasp the potential of x-rays in their field. But it wasn't until 1949 that scientists strapped small Geiger counters to a
