1895, Wilhelm Röntgen was an honored and admired physics professor. He was viewed with admiration by his contemporaries. They thought of him as a careful experimenter, with a rich experience in laboratory work. But reputation aside, Röntgen was 50 years oldâ??—â??and at that age, it is rare for a scientist to make a significant contribution to his or her field.
[This article is the transcript of the episode: ‘The History of X-Rays & CT', from the Curious Minds Podcast (CMPod). Subscribe to the podcast here.]
But, like your typical curious-minded scientist Röntgen kept plugging away on his Physics and laboratory experiments. He spent a lot of time in his lab, working alone. The focus of his curiosity was a peculiar device that, in spite of being very well known amongst physicists, was poorly understood. The device's name was the “Crookes Tube”. It gave off an inexplicable, ghastly yellowish glow that was a mystery that puzzled many of the great minds of the late 19th century. No one could explain why this tube glowed the way it did.
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