22 December: X-Rays

On this date in 1895 German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen made the first X-ray, of his wife's hand. 10 things you might not know about X-rays:

1. Because he was German, Röntgen named his discovery X-Strahlen - Strahlen being the German word for a ray or beam. X is used to indicate an unknown quantity in mathematics and was added to indicate that he didn't at first completely understand how these rays worked.
2. Like so many significant scientific discoveries, it was accidental, while the scientist was working on something else. In Röntgen's case, it he was working on the conduction of Electricity through gases. He found a ray that would light up a screen some distance away, and then found that if he passed his hand through the ray, the image of the bones would be projected onto the screen. From there is was a small step to work out that if he replaced the screen with a photographic plate, he could record an image.
3. His first subject, his wife, Anna Bertha, was, by some accounts, somewhat creeped out by the X-ray of her hand, and is reported to have commented, "I have seen my death!" The medical profession were much more interested and it wasn't long before doctors were using them to find bullets in human bodies and to diagnose fractures.
4. Röntgen's accidental discovery netted him the first Nobel Prize for physics.
5. People used to think X-rays were perfectly safe and put them to uses that would horrify doctors today. They became a curiosity at carnivals and even children's parties, where people could view the bones in their hands. They were a common sight in Shoe shops, too, as a way to ensure customers got shoes that fitted perfectly. Until the dangers became aparent, they were also used as a beauty treatment - removing unwanted hair.
6. It wasn't until 1904, when Thomas Edison's assistant, Clarence Dally, died of cancer at the age of 39 after working extensively with X-rays that people began to realise they weren't as safe as they'd thought. Thomas Edison, after seeing the nasty effects they had on his assistant, declared that he was afraid of X-rays. However, it was also discovered that X-rays could kill cancer cells and could be used as a cancer treatment. They also helped deal with another huge killer of the time - TB. An X-ray of a person's lungs was a more reliable way of diagnosing the disease than listening to someone's chest, and the disease could be spotted earlier, which meant it could be more effectively treated. They also discovered that the element barium absorbed X-rays and by giving a patient barium to eat, or as an enema, they could diagnose problems in the digestive system.
7. X-rays aren't just useful tools for doctors and dentists. They have other uses as well. Astronomers use X-rays transmitted from objects in space to make new discoveries far beyond our solar system. The Black Hole in the centre of the Milky Way galaxy is one example. You'll be relieved to know that the Earth's atmosphere is thick enough to prevent X-rays from distant objects reaching us on the ground - X-ray telescopes are deployed in space. Egyptian Mummies were X-rayed so scientists could find out about them without unwrapping them.
8. X-rays were instrumental in the disocvery of the structure of DNA thanks to a technique called X-ray crystallography. A woman named Rosalind Franklin took X-ray pictures of the molecule, but sadly died before she could get any credit for it.
9. In 2009, a Museum of London poll voted the X-ray the most significant modern scientific discovery, winning more votes than penicillin.
10. The art world has made use of them, too. X-rays of paintings by old masters have shown how the artists altered or overpainted their works. Some discoveries have been quite creepy. An X-ray of a buddha statue from China showed that the statue had a human corpse inside it, folded into the same lotus position as the statue.

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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