November 8 - X-Rays Are Observed for the First Time

This Day in History: 8 November 2020

 

8 November 1895

 

125 years ago, today, Germany scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen became the first person to observe X-rays, a significant scientific advancement that benefitted a variety of fields, especially medicine, by making the invisible visible. His discovery occurred accidentally in his lab in Wurzburg, Germany, where he was testing if cathode rays could pass through glass when he noticed a glow coming from a nearby chemically coated screen. He dubbed the rays that caused this glow 'X-rays' because of their unknown nature. This was labelled as a medical miracle and X-rays soon became an important diagnostic tool in medicine.

 

Doctors could now see inside the human body for the first time without surgery, and in 1897, X-rays were used on a military battlefield for the first time, during the Balkan War, to find bullets and broken bones inside patients. Scientists realised the benefits of X-rays but were slow to comprehend their harmful effects. It was though initially they were as harmless as light, but within several years, burns and skin damage was reported after exposure to X-rays. Thomas Edison's assistant, Clarence Dally, died of skin cancer after working extensively with X-rays, causing scientists to begin taking the risks of radiation more seriously.

 

Want to find out more about the history of X-rays? Click here for more information, or here for more about Wilhelm Röntgen.

Science and Maps

There is plenty of good history on TV at the moment. Tonight BBC2 begins showing its flagship programme "The Story of Science", ambitiously showing the history of science. The notes on the website state that it is "a tale of courage and of fear, of hope and disaster, of persistence and success", interweaving "great forces of history – revolutions, voyages of discovery and artistic movements – with practical, ingenious inventions and the dogged determination of experimenters and scientists". Tonight's episode focuses in particular on the growing realisation that the earth rotated around the sun, and not vice versa, and the impact of this on society, religion and culture.

Meanwhile BBC4 is showing several programmes about the impact of maps on history and their utility as sources for the period they represent. "Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession" examines maps from the Ancient World to Google Earth, and shows how they were used as tools to project political power and propaganda, such as the Romans' maps of the newest parts of the Empire that they had conquered. Meanwhile the "Beauty of Maps" does exactly what it says on the tin, looking in wonder at particular maps and examining some of their secrets. It has a special website where you can examine some of these for yourself.

If you watch any of these programmes, please post a review either as a comment below or in an email to us. We would love to hear what you think, or if you have any other recommendations.

First DotCom

Today also marks the 25th Anniversary of the first ever "dotcom" domain name being registered. It was "Symbolics.com" and it still exists. You can find out more about this here and a list of the first 100 sites here.

PS: It's Science Week this week at Nonsuch and the theme this year is "The History of Science", marking the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society. There is a super timeline of significant scientific milestones here and the more about the Royal Society here. Watch out for events across the school!