{"id":18722,"date":"2018-07-27T02:06:45","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T02:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/?p=18722"},"modified":"2018-07-27T02:06:45","modified_gmt":"2018-07-27T02:06:45","slug":"science-dr-karl-extraordinary-x-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/au\/discover\/science\/general-science\/science-dr-karl-extraordinary-x-rays\/","title":{"rendered":"Science with Dr Karl: Extraordinary X-rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"x-rays\"<\/a><\/p>\n

X-Rays uncovered!<\/h2>\n

On 22 December, 1895 the German physicist Wilhelm R\u00f6ntgen took the first ever medical X-ray. It was of his wife\u2019s hand! X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation. When this light passes through the body and onto a photographic plate, pictures of bones and some organs are produced, and can show signs of damage or injury that we wouldn\u2019t\u00a0 be able to see otherwise!<\/p>\n

MEDICAL MAGIC<\/p>\n

After R\u00f6ntgen\u2019s discovery, medical doctors started using X-rays. On 11 January, 1896 in the UK, John Hall-Edwards carried out the first medical use of X-rays when he photographed a metal needle stuck inside
\na workmate\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

But within a month, doctors reported the first side effect of this radiation \u2013 hair loss! In February 1896, William Lofland Dudley of Vanderbilt University in the USA spent an hour X-raying the head of a child (that is much longer than an X-ray takes today!) with his own head very close to the X-ray tube. Three weeks later, he had a bald spot on his head! Soon there were other reports of the harm caused by too much radiation.<\/p>\n

UPSIDES AND DOWNSIDES<\/p>\n

So they have upsides and downsides. The upside is they can show hidden damage inside the body, helping doctors to diagnose patients more efficiently. The downside is the side-effects radiation has on the body. But in the right amounts, the radiation can be used for good! Doctors can carefully aim skinny, powerful beams of X-rays at bad cells \u2013 such as cancer cells \u2013 and kill them. So X-rays can be used for both diagnosis and<\/em> treatment. Wow!<\/p>\n

BEYOND THE BODY<\/p>\n

X-rays also have non-medical uses. In the 1950s,they revealed the spiral staircase shape of our DNA, thanks to X-ray crystallography by Rosalind Franklin.<\/p>\n

Inside a jet engine, a single turbine blade the size of the palm of your hand can generate 500kW. If these blades fail, they can destroy an entire jet plane. So they are scanned for cracks using X-rays!<\/p>\n

And of course, at airports, your luggage is scanned with X-rays to look for dangerous and illegal items \u2013 much faster than unpacking everything to show the security guards!<\/p>\n

Microscopic and precise beams of X-rays draw tiny patterns to help make the powerful silicon chips inside your smartphone and computer!<\/p>\n

So, X-rays make our lives better in many ways. What an amazing invention!<\/p>\n

DID YOU KNOW?\u00a0 Under very special (and very dangerous!) conditions you can actually see X-rays! R\u00f6ntgen himself noted that if he was in the dark and fired very powerful ones at his head, he could just see a pale blue glow. (WARNING! Don\u2019t try this at home!) We still don\u2019t know how they produce this blue glow.<\/p>\n

DID YOU KNOW? \u00a0They are just super-powerful light waves. The difference is that they carry hundreds of thousands times more energy than regular light.<\/p>\n

DID YOU KNOW? \u00a0The \u2018X\u2019 stands for \u2018unknown\u2019. R\u00f6ntgen gave it that name because it was an unknown form of radiation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

X-Rays uncovered! On 22 December, 1895 the German physicist Wilhelm R\u00f6ntgen took the first ever medical X-ray. It was of his wife\u2019s hand! X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation. 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