Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen and the discovery of X-rays: Revisited after centennial

Abstract

Every healthcare professional should be aware of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen′s discovery of X-rays over 100 years ago, which had an interesting, eventful, and dramatic history. The physicist from Germany won the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901 for this discovery. Röntgen was one of the outstanding physicists of the nineteenth century, even without considering his best-known discovery, which opened up new vistas in research. In addition to the discovery of X-rays, Röntgen is credited with three standard components that are currently used in X-ray analysis: The fluorescent screen, the photographic plate, and a prototype of the ionization chamber method. This paper is a wordy tribute to a great scientist and presents a simplified picture of Röntgen′s great discovery of X-rays.

Keywords

• Discovery of X-rays
• father of diagnostic radiology
• Röntgen