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X-Rays and Cells

Abstract

THIS year marks the centenary of the birth of Roentgen, who announced the discovery of X-rays to the Physico-Medical Society of Würzburg fifty years ago (1895). The importance of X-rays for diagnosis in medicine was quickly realized; but their use in treatment, owing to technical difficulties, began only after the discovery of radium three years later. First radium was found to check the growth of tumours in mice1, then X-rays were found to check mitosis in roots and pollen2; early discoveries, which form the remote foundation of modern radiotherapy, or radiation treatment. Later, Strangeways and his colleagues3,4 showed that different doses had different kinds of effects on tissue cultures.

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KOLLER, P. X-Rays and Cells. Nature 155, 778–780 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155778a0

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