Read the text.
The Mysterious X-Ray
On 8 November 1895, German-Dutch scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was working in his laboratory. Röntgen was studying cathode rays, which are created by running an electric current through a glass tube. Nearby was a screen coated with a substance that glows when rays hit it. Röntgen had set up a cardboard barrier around his experiment to stop the cathode rays from hitting the screen. But something strange happened! The screen began to glow. Röntgen realised that an unknown kind of ray must be passing through the cardboard. Röntgen named these strange rays ‘X’ for ‘unknown’.
Röntgen continued experimenting with the new rays and soon discovered that they could penetrate human flesh. Because the rays travelled through the skin, he could use them to create a picture of things inside a person’s body. One of the first X-ray pictures he took was of his wife’s hand, with her bones clearly visible in the picture.
Scientists and the public were amazed at Röntgen’s discovery. Now doctors could see inside the human body without cutting it open first. With the help of X-rays, doctors could determine exactly where a bone was broken. Just months after Röntgen announced his findings, X-rays were being used on the battlefield. Army doctors could find bullets in wounded soldiers. Within a year, the first X-ray department opened in a Scottish hospital. There, X-rays created pictures of a coin stuck in a child’s throat. The public, meanwhile, was delighted. For the first time ever, the invisible was visible! Newspapers published stories on how X-rays worked. Everyone wanted to see inside their own bodies.
Though the benefits of X-rays were realised immediately, the dangers, sadly, were not. At first, people believed that X-rays were as harmless as light. X-rays are a form of energy similar to light. However, X-rays have much higher energy than light. That’s why they can travel through materials that light cannot. This high energy can damage the cells of living things.
Years after Röntgen’s discovery, scientists began to report cases of skin damage and burns from working with X-rays. Though some scientists began to take greater caution, the risks of X-rays still were not fully understood until much later. In fact, during the 1930s and 1940s, many American shoe shops used X-rays as a way to check if shoes fitted properly. It was not until the 1950s that this seemingly harmless practice was brought to an end.
We now know that getting too many X-rays can cause diseases like cancer. Today, people get X-rays only in emergencies or to check for health problems. Thankfully, X-ray technology has come a long way since Röntgen’s day. Modern X-ray machines are far safer than early machines. As a result, many experts agree that the benefits of modern X-rays far outweigh the risks.