X-ray summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see X-ray.

X-ray tubeAn X-ray tube. Electrons “boil” off the cathode when the filament is heated by a current. A high voltage between cathode and anode causes the electrons to accelerate toward the anode, which rotates to avoid overheating of the target. When the electrons strike the anode's target area, X-rays are emitted.

X-ray, Electromagnetic radiation of extremely short wavelength (100 nanometres to 0.001 nanometre) produced by the deceleration of charged particles or the transitions of electrons in atoms. X-rays travel at the speed of light and exhibit phenomena associated with waves, but experiments indicate that they can also behave like particles (see wave-particle duality). On the electromagnetic spectrum, they lie between gamma rays and ultraviolet radiation. They were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who named them X-rays for their unknown nature. They are used in medicine to diagnose bone fractures, dental cavities, and cancer; to locate foreign objects in the body; and to stop the spread of malignant tumours. In industry, they are used to analyze and detect flaws in structures.

Hermann Joseph Muller Summary

Hermann Joseph Muller was an American geneticist best remembered for his demonstration that mutations and hereditary changes can be caused by X rays striking the genes and chromosomes of living cells. His discovery of artificially induced mutations in genes had far-reaching consequences, and he was

Marie Curie Summary

Marie Curie was a Polish-born French physicist, famous for her work on radioactivity and twice a winner of the Nobel Prize. With Henri Becquerel and her husband, Pierre Curie, she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics. She was the sole winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She was