WILHELM CONRAD RONTGEN
Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen was a German physicist and professor of physics at Wurzburg Public University, Bavaria. On November 8, 1895, while testing in his laboratory whether cathode rays could pass through the glass, he produced and detected high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of ultraviolet rays and longer than that of gamma rays. Rontgen took radiation of his wife's hand, which demonstrated the bones of her hand and implied a medical use for the discovery. Mrs Roentgen exclaimed, "I have seen my death." After 7 weeks of study of their properties, of this new type of radiation able to go through screens of notable thickness, he reported about these rays in December 1895. These are now known as X-rays or Rontgen rays. This achievement earned him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. A very radioactive element 111, roentgenium, with multiple unstable isotopes, is named after him. Rontgen was born on 27 March 1845 in Lennep, Rhine Province, Germany. He died of cancer on 10 February 1923 at the age of 77.
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