Why Are X-Rays Important?

X-rays are the stuff of science fiction and common medical knowledge, yet beyond the pictures that show bones and lodged objects in the body, what x-rays are used for is not especially well-known. The x-ray is actually a very conveniently placed form of ionizing radiation, just powerful enough to be useful, but not so powerful that it does serious damage.

Identification

X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation. They sit between gamma and ultraviolet on the spectrum. Their penetrating power is useful in diagnostic medicine, for which they are best known, but they also have a variety of other uses.

Benefits

In a medical X-ray, a patient is placed between an image receptor and an X-ray emitter. Originally the image receptor was a photographic plate, but there are a variety of technologies in use today. Denser parts of the body, such as bone, block more (but not all) X-rays. As a result of the degree to which bone partially blocks X-rays, a corresponding negative image appears on the image receptor. A regular photograph is the product of how much and of what kind of visible light makes contact with a photographic plate; X-rays work the same way, except that they can pass through the solid matter found in the body. The same technology is used in security X-ray scanners.
X-rays are more valuable than other forms of electromagnetic radiation because they are just strong enough for this purpose. Most or all of a burst of higher energy gamma rays would pass right through a human body, doing great harm and also proving useless for creating an image. Lower energy forms of radiation, on the other hand, would be mostly or entirely blocked by body tissues, proving equally useless for creating an image.

Features

X-rays are used for a variety of other functions that are less well-known than their medical application. The second most important is for astronomy. Stars and other celestial bodies release substantial amount of X-rays, which are invisible to the naked eye. These X-rays are detectable to certain instruments and can be used to put together an important part of the picture of the universe. X-rays are also used in crystal and microscopic analysis.

History

Although devices were undoubtedly emitting X-rays before this, the first man to systematically study X-rays was Wilhelm Röntgen, starting in 1895. He received the first Nobel Prize in Physics for his work. Medical X-ray technology was a development of the separate work of Philipp Lenard and Thomas Edison.

Potential

Another speculated use for X-rays came out of the 1980s "Star Wars" missile program. One of the projects involved using nuclear bombs to power a laser beam based on X-rays. Although nothing much ever came of this theoretical weapons design, the research yielded a handful of spin-offs in X-ray technology, such as new means of using X-rays in medical imaging.