The Cure - Medical Pioneer： Wilhelm Roentgen

In 1895, the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen accidentally discovered x-rays while experimenting with beams of electrons inside a vacuum tube. He was working in a dark room with the tube enclosed in a sealed, thick, black carton to prevent any light from escaping. But when he applied an electric voltage to the tube, he noticed that a very sensitive light detection screen in the room started glowing. He theorized that this faint shimmering was caused by a new type of invisible radiation coming off the tube. He named the rays x for unknown. In a series of experiments, Röntgen discovered x-rays could travel distances of meters and could pass through materials such as cardboard and human tissue, but not through denser substances such as metal and bone, which absorb the rays. This meant dense materials left an imprint on photographic The first x-ray image or Röntgenogram was of Röntgen's wife's left hand, showing her bones and a ring she was wearing. On seeing it, she is reported to have exclaimed, I have seen my death. Röntgen's discovery hailed the birth of radiology and paved the way for the use of x-rays in medicine. In 1901, Röntgen became the first recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics. He donated the prize money to the University of Würzburg to promote scientific study. Despite his fame due to the x-ray, Röntgen refused to patent his discovery, stating that it belonged to the world. Indeed, it was due to ongoing research that more intense rays were developed, allowing x-rays to become central to hospital diagnosis. Röntgen's discovery also laid the foundation for Marie Curie's discovery of the radioactive element radium, which was widely used for cancer treatment.