It was the evening ofNovember 8, 1895 when, in a laboratory at the University of Würzburg, the physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen he randomly observed something extraordinary: a mysterious fluorescence that seemed to pass through matter. The next day, November 9, he began to systematically document what he had discovered: a new form of invisible radiation capable of penetrating opaque bodies. Today, more than a century later, X-rays they have become fundamental tools not only in medicine, but also in physics, archaeology, engineering and art.
Wilhelm Röntgen and the discovery of X-rays
Wilhelm RöntgenGerman physicist born in 1845 in Lennep, on the evening of November 8, 1895 he was leading experiments with cathode rays in a completely darkened laboratory, when he noticed that a screen covered in platinum-barium cyanide glowed faintly, even though the light was not directly hitting it. He had shielded the cathode ray tube with black cardboard, yet something managed to get past it. It was a new form of radiation that he tentatively called “X” to indicate its unknown nature.
Over the next few days, Röntgen conducted systematic experiments and discovered that these rays could pass through materials such as paper, wood, and even flesh, but were absorbed by bones and metals. On 22 December 1895 he created the first x-ray in history: the hand of his wife Anna Bertha Ludwigin which the bones and the ring on the finger were clearly visible.
A revolution for medicine and beyond
The impact was immediate. Already in 1896in England, was opened on first hospital radiology department. X-rays allowed us to “see inside” the human body for the first time without having to open it, revolutionizing medical diagnostics. But not only that: today X-rays are also used for security checks at airports, to analyze works of art, to study materials and even to explore the universe.
An extraordinary example of modern applications is theESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) of Grenoble, France. Here, thanks to a particle accelerator that produces X-rays millions of times more intense than Röntgen’s, you can analyze atomic structures, study viruses, observe three-dimensional fossils without damaging them and even read charred ancient papyri.
