#Rad tech week 2020 skin
However, within several years, researchers began to report cases of burns and skin damage after exposure to X-rays, and in 1904, Thomas Edison’s assistant, Clarence Dally, who had worked extensively with X-rays, died of skin cancer. Initially, it was believed X-rays passed through flesh as harmlessly as light. Scientists were quick to realize the benefits of X-rays, but slower to comprehend the harmful effects of radiation. In 1897, X-rays were first used on a military battlefield, during the Balkan War, to find bullets and broken bones inside patients. Rontgen’s discovery was labeled a medical miracle and X-rays soon became an important diagnostic tool in medicine, allowing doctors to see inside the human body for the first time without surgery. He learned that X-rays penetrate human flesh but not higher-density substances such as bone or lead and that they can be photographed. Rontgen holed up in his lab and conducted a series of experiments to better understand his discovery. X-rays are electromagnetic energy waves that act similarly to light rays, but at wavelengths approximately 1,000 times shorter than those of light. He dubbed the rays that caused this glow X-rays because of their unknown nature. Rontgen’s discovery occurred accidentally in his Wurzburg, Germany, lab, where he was testing whether cathode rays could pass through glass when he noticed a glow coming from a nearby chemically coated screen.
On this day (November 7th) in 1895, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen (1845-1923) becomes the first person to observe X-rays, a significant scientific advancement that would ultimately benefit a variety of fields, most of all medicine, by making the invisible visible. By Peter Stachowicz, Director of Ambulatory Services/ Medical Imaging Manager
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