Thursday, October 30, 2008

Amazing Science: Scotch Tape and X-rays

What is the relation between the two? Answer: Scotch tape can create X-rays!

In the current issue of the journal Nature, Dr. Putterman and his colleagues report that surprisingly fierce flows of electrons were unleashed as the tape was unpeeled and its gooey adhesive snapped free of the surface. The electrical currents, in turn, generated strong, short bursts of X-rays — each burst, about a billionth of a second long, contained about 300,000 X-ray photons.

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