X Ray facts
While investigating facts about X Ray, I found out little known, but curios details like:
The secret police in Communist Romania subjected the leaders of a 1977 coal miners' strike to 5-minute chest X-rays to ensure that they developed cancer
Radiation-blocking proteins taken from "water bear" DNA have been incorporated into human cells which boosted the protection of human DNA against damage from x-rays by 40%.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about X Ray I managed to collect.
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The first man to perform cardiac catheterization, did it on himself then walked downstairs to the radiology department to take the x-ray to prove you would not die. He was fired, became a Nazi, then won the Nobel Prize.
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Jazz on bones" or "Ribs" were bootleg vinyl recordings made from old x-rays with holes burned in the middle from cigarettes. In the 50's and 60's they were a black market method for smuggling banned music into the Soviet Union such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Elvis.
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Modern surgeon sponges have x-ray visible stripes because surgeons kept leaving them in patients
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In 1998, Sony inadvertently released a camcorder that could see through clothes. When aimed at people wearing dark clothing, the night-vision feature created an x-ray effect, meaning what ever was beneath became visible. Sony had to recall over 700,000 units after they discovered the issue.
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The UK still retains 18 Queen's Messengers, who hand deliver secret documents to British embassies worldwide, travelling undercover in business class. The diplomatic package has its own "passport", as though it's a human being, and is exempt from being searched or x-rayed by airport security.
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Many Iraqis believed that the Oakleys worn by American soldiers gave them X-ray vision, to see through Iraqi women's clothes.
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The leaders of a 1977 miners strike in Communist Romania were given 5 minute chest x-rays after the strike was over to ensure they would develop cancer.
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Because a shortage of vinyl recording material and censorship of some Western music during the Soviet era, bootleg recordings known as Ribs, Bones or roentgenizdat were produced on discarded medical X-ray prints.
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Biologists went to Bikini Atoll a year after the nuclear tests, caught a fish, held it up to photograph paper, and took an x-ray image using rays coming from inside the fish.
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Rosalind Franklin is the unsung hero of DNA research. Her X-ray Crystallography allowed her colleagues Watson and Crick to accurately characterize the double helix. Many believe she should’ve shared in their Nobel prize.
X Ray data charts
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What is true about x ray?
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In March 2012, scientist and blogger Jonathan Corbett demonstrated the ineffectiveness of full body scanners by publishing a viral video showing how he was able to get a metal box through backscatter x-ray and millimeter wave scanners in two US airports.
The first person to perform a cardiac catheterization was not allowed to perform the procedure on a patient, so he decided to perform it on himself and then walk all the way to the X-ray room with the catheter still in his arm to prove that the tube had reached his heart. - source
Peeling Scotch Tape in a vacuum releases enough X-rays to produce an image of finger bones on X-ray film - source
flat-faced dogs like pugs are so deformed that veterinary students can mistake their x-rays for dogs that have been hit by cars. One vet has publicly stated that their nose is so misshapen that they only get enough oxygen when they're intubated with a breathing tube.
Wilhelm Röntgen who discovered x-rays refused to patent his discovery as he 'wanted mankind as a whole to benefit from practical applications of the same' - source
Thomas Edison abandoned his research into x-rays when he damaged his eyesight, and his assistant had his arms amputated from repeated exposure. “Don’t talk to me about X-rays,” he said. “I am afraid of them.”
In Soviet Russia, people bootlegged forbidden Western music, but due to vinyl being in short supply, they would often use old x-rays, creating eerie-looking, hand-crafted records.
The "X" in X-Ray was just a random letter because Wilhelm Roentgen didn't know what it was.
Before the discovery of X-rays and xylophone popularity, the Persian King Xerxes was used for the X letter in children's alphabet books.
About Clarence Dally, perhaps the first person to die of man-made radiation in 1904. He was an assistant to Thomas Edison on a new x-ray machine. He had to have both of his hands amputated but eventually died from cancer. Edison refused to work with x-rays ever again.
Under the Soviet Union, the distribution of Beatles albums was forbidden by the government, so some medical students would burn Beatles songs onto old X-rays.
