X-ray Quotes (5)

But in its [the corpuscular theory of radiation] relation to the wave theory there is one extraordinary and, at present, insoluble problem. It is not known how the energy of the electron in the X-ray bulb is transferred by a wave motion to an electron in the photographic plate or in any other substance on which the X-rays fall. It is as if one dropped a plank into the sea from the height of 100 ft. and found that the spreading ripple was able, after travelling 1000 miles and becoming infinitesimal in comparison with its original amount, to act upon a wooden ship in such a way that a plank of that ship flew out of its place to a height of 100 ft. How does the energy get from one place to the other?
'Aether Waves and Electrons' (Summary of the Robert Boyle Lecture), Nature, 1921, 107, 374.
See also:  |  Electron (18)  |  Energy (18)  |  Wave (6)

Great discoveries are made accidentally less often than the populace likes to think.
Commenting on how an accident led to the discovery of X-rays..
A History of Science and Its Relations with Philosophy and Religion (1931), 882.
See also:  |  Discovery (81)

Since the stomach gives no obvious external sign of its workings, investigators of gastric movements have hitherto been obliged to confine their studies to pathological subjects or to animals subjected to serious operative interference. Observations made under these necessarily abnormal conditions have yielded a literature which is full of conflicting statements and uncertain results. The only sure conclusion to be drawn from this material is that when the stomach receives food, obscure peristaltic contractions are set going, which in some way churn the food to a liquid chyme and force it into the intestines. How imperfectly this describes the real workings of the stomach will appear from the following account of the actions of the organ studied by a new method. The mixing of a small quantity of subnitrate of bismuth with the food allows not only the contractions of the gastric wall, but also the movements of the gastric contents to be seen with the Röntgen rays in the uninjured animal during normal digestion.
The Movements of the Stomach Studied by Means of the Röntgen Rays,' American Journal of Physiology, 1898, 1, 359-360.
See also:  |  Digestion (4)

The great object is to find the theory of the matter [of X-rays] before anyone else, for nearly every professor in Europe is now on the warpath.

When you no longer know what headache, heartache, or stomachache means without cistern punctures, electrocardiograms and six x-ray plates, you are slipping.

back arrow
Custom search within only our quotations pages:
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:

Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology. Source citations are usually given - if you know any missing information on sources, please contact us.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |



Site Navigation



If you find this site useful, please add a link from your site.


Today in Science History
Quotations
by scientists, inventors, on science and more.
- Go To Index -

Today in Science
Science Store
A selection of interesting science books, dvds and learning products for gifts or yourself.
Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
To introduce you to our Science store, a 22% savings on:
Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
Oxford Univ Press, 736 pp.
List $19.95.
Price: $15.59.
Original words on great scientific discoveries.
Darwin considers pros and cons of marriage.
James Clerk Maxwell's electric but poetic Valentine.
I have little patience with scientists who take a board of wood, look for its thinnest part and drill a great number of holes where drilling is easy. --Albert Einstein
I try to identify myself with the atoms...I ask what I would do if I were a carbon atom or a sodium atom. --Linus Pauling




5,812,117











Locations of visitors to this page