Scientists are putting the X factor back in X-rays

It started with an accident, as the most exciting discoveries often do.
In late 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Rӧntgen was testing equipment in his lab under a black cardboard covering. While experimenting on known forms of light, he witnessed a fluorescent light that behaved like nothing anyone had ever seen before. It not only moved through the cardboard—it traveled an additional nine feet.
These new beams, which Rӧntgen named “X-rays,” (“X” being a mathematician’s standard substitution for all things unknown) actually penetrated a plethora of common substances, from cardboard to soft tissue. But these mysterious pulses suddenly stopped when they hit bone or metal.
The discovery inspired both horror and hope. Legend has it that upon seeing an X-ray reproduction of her own hand, all bone and metal wedding ring, Rӧntgen’s wife Anna Bertha said, “I have seen my death!” and never returned to the lab. But the medical industry saw in the X-ray a boundless therapeutic potential.