Scotch tape = x-rays!?

Take a look this article from Yahoo!:

NEW YORK – Just two weeks after a Nobel Prize highlighted theoretical work on subatomic particles, physicists are announcing a startling discovery about a much more familiar form of matter: Scotch tape. It turns out that if you peel the popular adhesive tape off its roll in a vacuum chamber, it emits X-rays. The researchers even made an X-ray image of one of their fingers.

Who knew? Actually, more than 50 years ago, some Russian scientists reported evidence of X-rays from peeling sticky tape off glass. But the new work demonstrates that you can get a lot of X-rays, a study co-author says.

"We were very surprised," said Juan Escobar. "The power you could get from just peeling tape was enormous."

Escobar, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, reports the work with UCLA colleagues in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

He suggests that with some refinements, the process might be harnessed for making inexpensive X-ray machines for paramedics or for places where electricity is expensive or hard to get. After all, you could peel tape or do something similar in such machines with just human power, like cranking.


Now that is just plain impressive!

 

I think that's all that needs to be said.

 

Now that's cool. I'm gonna give some tape to an astronaut and see what happens.

 

That's bad, X-Rays can make cells cancerous...

 

haha, wrong x-ray cj! these *don't (^_^; oops)* need any nuclear rays or what is used in x-rays!

 

All rays are radioactive...
Micro-Waves | Radio Waves | Infrared Waves |<- Waves | Visible Light | Rays -> | Ultraviolet-Rays | X-Rays | Gamma-Rays
See?

All Rays are ionising, (this is the electro-magnetic spectrum by the way.) it is thought that Waves aren't ionising but can still have side-effects (e.g- Cause headaches from exposure) but it is possible that Waves strong enough could even be ionising.

If you don't know what Ionising is when photons damage molecules/cells which is called Ionisation, which leaves behind Ions because the Ionising rays kind of knock off electrons or add them making the molecule/cell unstable.

 

yup, what loony said. in this case, the tape acts kinda like a pair of glasses.

 

Just to add to what Loony said, sound waves are also no radioactive.

I think thats cool the tape able to make x rays, we'll have tape glasses soon lol

 

You do know you won't see under the clothes but actually only bones so no... (And I know there are exceptions e.g- Kidney Stones)

 

Hmmm... So x-ray specs might be gearing up for a comeback eh? ;D

Too bad though you need to activate the tape's x-ray giving off properties in a vacuumed environment, oh well.