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On 8 November 1895, in his laboratory at the University of Würzburg in Germany, Wilhelm Röntgen found invisible rays that pass through skin and flesh but are stopped by bone and metal. He called them X-rays, X for unknown, and in 1901 received the first Nobel Prize in Physics.

Würzburg, Germany, 1895

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The story behind the card

Röntgen was passing electricity through a glass tube covered in black cardboard when he noticed a coated screen on a nearby bench begin to glow. For weeks afterwards he almost lived in his laboratory, studying the new rays. About six weeks after the discovery he made an X-ray image of his wife Anna Bertha's hand, showing her bones and her ring, and his paper 'On a New Kind of Rays' appeared on 28 December 1895. News spread within days, and doctors were soon using X-rays to look at broken bones. Röntgen refused to patent the discovery so that everyone could benefit from it. Many languages, including German and Turkish, still name the rays after him, which is why an X-ray is a 'röntgen' in Turkish.

Türkçe oku
Wilhelm Röntgen, 8 Kasım 1895'te Almanya'daki Würzburg Üniversitesi'nde görünmez yeni bir ışın keşfetti: Bu ışınlar deriden ve etten geçiyor, kemikte ve metalde ise tutuluyordu. Ne olduklarını bilmediği için, matematikteki bilinmeyen gibi onlara “X ışınları” adını verdi. 1901'de ilk Nobel Fizik Ödülü'nü aldı.
Würzburg, Almanya, 1895

Röntgen, siyah kartonla kapladığı bir cam tüpten elektrik geçirirken yakındaki bir masada duran, özel bir maddeyle kaplı ekranın parladığını fark etti. Sonraki haftalarda neredeyse laboratuvarında yaşayarak yeni ışınları inceledi. Buluşundan yaklaşık altı hafta sonra X ışınlarıyla eşi Anna Bertha'nın elinin görüntüsünü çekti; görüntüde elin kemikleri ve parmağındaki yüzük seçiliyordu. “Yeni Bir Işın Türü Üzerine” başlıklı makalesi 28 Aralık 1895'te yayımlandı. Haber birkaç gün içinde yayıldı ve hekimler kısa sürede kırık kemikleri görmek için X ışınlarını kullanmaya başladı. Röntgen, herkes yararlanabilsin diye buluşunun patentini almadı. Almanca ve Türkçe dâhil pek çok dil bu ışınlara hâlâ onun adını verir; Türkçede “röntgen çektirmek” denmesinin nedeni de budur.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: X-ray
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