Images That Changed The World - X-ray

Dr Mark Lythgoe, Director of the Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging, tells the untold story of medical imaging and why uncovering our inner selves changed the world. The image of a ghostly skeletal hand, wearing an enormous wedding ring, shocked and fascinated the public when it hit the front page of newspapers around the world in January 1896. This was the first X-ray, taken by Wilhelm Roentgen of his wife Bertha. It sparked a worldwide trend for DIY X-ray kits, until the dangers emerged. Mark Lythgoe looks at how medical images have changed our culture beyond the realm of medicine. In this episode, he explains how seeing living skeletons revolutionised our view of the body.