Top 7 Greatest Scientific Discoveries - Page 5 of 9

The scientific discovery of x-rays

Some of the greatest scientific discoveries came by accident. For example, the x-ray is a great example of this. In 1895, the German physicist Whilhelm Conrad Rontegen accidentally discovered x-rays while playing with a florescent light bulb. By passing electricity through a gas in a low pressure tube, Rontegen saw that the emitted light would pass through tissue but not through bones or other dense objects essentially giving a picture of the inside.