tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/x-ray-machine-44513/articles
X-ray machine – The Conversation
2018-08-16T11:26:15Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/101344
2018-08-16T11:26:15Z
2018-08-16T11:26:15Z
Why X-rays could be about to get a lot more personal
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231873/original/file-20180814-2894-5gdxj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Finger mounted flexible detector</span> </figcaption></figure><p>X-rays could be about to change. Since its discovery at the end of the 19th century, the radiation has provided a window into the inner workings of the body, and later gave us the power to “see” inside everything from buildings to suitcases. But the technology has remained in principle the same: the rays are fired through whatever object is being inspected onto a fixed, rigid and usually small detector that can produce the desired image.</p>
<p>But X-rays could be much more flexible in future. New technology means that X-ray detectors could one day effectively be printed onto any suitable surface. So they could be made curved to wrap around the part of the patient’s body being scanned to produce a much more accurate image. They could be large enough to scan an entire truck in one go. And they could be portable enough to quickly carry through a crowd to inspect a suspicious package. And this future is now a step closer thanks to a recent advance that my colleagues and I have made.</p>
<p>Today, many X-ray images are created by firing the rays onto a <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9155/42/1/001/pdf">digital detector</a> rather than photographic film. These detectors convert the X-rays into electrical charges and a computer converts these into a digital image. Many industries have benefitted from this massive leap from X-ray film because it has enabled the creation of more detailed images that can be viewed in real time. But the solid detectors are also rigid and flat and so limited.</p>
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<p>By contrast, the human body naturally consists of curved surfaces. And firing X-rays through a curved object onto a flat detector can cause <a href="https://www.holstcentre.com/news---press/2017/curvedxray/">errors</a>. This can lead to a cancer misdiagnosis or a patient being given the wrong dose of radiotherapy. Overexposing someone to X-rays can also cause tissue damage and even the growth of <a href="http://stopcancerfund.org/pz-environmental-exposures/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-radiation-and-cancer-but-were-afraid-to-ask-2/">secondary tumours</a>.</p>
<p>Because current X-ray detectors are mostly made from thick slabs of inorganic material, they are expensive to make in large sizes for scanning large objects such as vehicles. Some detectors also require very high voltages to operate and so would’t be suitable for <a href="https://www.or-technology.com/en/products/mobile/leonardo-dr-mini.html">portable applications</a>.</p>
<p>For inspecting manufactured parts and products for defects (known as non-destrutive testing), traditional X-ray films are still commonly used to capture images because they are cheaper than digital detectors. But these films need to be processed in a special lab so they can’t provide the real-time images that digital detectors can.</p>
<h2>Flexible detectors</h2>
<p>All these applications would benefit from the creation of more flexible digital X-ray detectors. And it looks as if there might finally be a solution. In 2017, researchers demonstrated the <a href="http://www.osadirect.com/news/article/2053/holst-centre-imec-and-philips-demo-worlds-first-curved-plastic-photodetector/">world’s first</a> curved plastic X-ray imager. And now, my colleagues and I have developed a way to create detectors using a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05301-6">special ink</a> that can be deposited on a surface to create an X-ray sensitive film.</p>
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<p>The ink contains nanoparticles that can stop the incoming X-rays and generate an electrical charge, and organic material that carries the charge to a set of electrodes. It can be coated or printed onto any suitable surface of any size and only needs to be several micrometers thick, less than a sheet of paper.</p>
<p>As a result, it is now possible to create large, flexible X-ray detectors powered using only a couple of coin cell batteries. Alternatively, we could create portable X-ray detectors that, coupled with portable X-ray sources, could fit into ambulances and be used to make diagnoses on the road and not just in hospitals. And improving the resolution of the images could allow the technology to be used for detecting cancer.</p>
<p>Researchers are also <a href="https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en/news/high-resolution-detectors-to-create-safer-x-ray-diagnosis.html">working</a> to create detectors that can work with lower X-ray doses, to minimise the amount of radiation that patients and operators are exposed to. This will require identifying materials that are more sensitive to X-rays so that a better response can be achieved with a lower dose. This technology has such exciting potential to revolutionise current imaging techniques and where this would take us is only limited by our imagination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hashini Thirimanne receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>
An X-ray sensitive ink means future detectors could be printable, portable and flexible.
Hashini Thirimanne, PhD Candidate in Electronic Engineering, University of Surrey
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85895
2017-11-28T19:08:19Z
2017-11-28T19:08:19Z
Curious Kids: How do x-rays see inside you?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195384/original/file-20171120-18547-m75uqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">X-rays are like light rays, but they can pass through more stuff.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marcella Cheng/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is an article from <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a>, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky!</em> </p>
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<p><strong>How do x-rays see inside you? – Eva, age 9 from Marrickville</strong></p>
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<p>Have you ever played shadow puppets to make shadow pictures on the wall? When you do, your hand is stopping the light rays from the lamp reaching the wall. X-ray images are a little like that.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196021/original/file-20171123-6061-jf3gq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196021/original/file-20171123-6061-jf3gq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196021/original/file-20171123-6061-jf3gq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196021/original/file-20171123-6061-jf3gq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196021/original/file-20171123-6061-jf3gq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196021/original/file-20171123-6061-jf3gq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196021/original/file-20171123-6061-jf3gq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196021/original/file-20171123-6061-jf3gq5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Try putting your hand over a torch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/psychobabble/190779618/in/photolist-hRN8L-5S8q79-6o8ode-9HySxf-76jBmH-8fBmPG-6iDjNX-GigUzJ-cnwiAq-7q31kj-pGexoJ-oswaWP-6bojKi-4Qo3GN-bhe1-SwR1BA-muTXSA-KuziB-dJacWW-5GztX3-gNvEoK-6sLEBt-4UAtBA-aVX2xD-YrZ5xG-6SSNqL-731xqS-pqKpmg-pJJBNd-shUgi-bEPm7E-6uYudg-evKWZ-jv83H-jHk13T-8Roxb-6So2Tr-rsfV4z-e8d7B5-5Qg5Mx-4kPzcw-6bsv7d-9Cigw8-qQCsrV-bL2UDP-4bF9WJ-7Akoph-9GBrV7-9qTeg8-7LAXfS">Flickr/Amy</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Try putting a torch up against your hand and seeing how some light passes through the skin of your fingers. </p>
<p>Some light doesn’t shine through. That’s because some of the energy has been removed from the beam and some has managed to make its way through your skin and you can see it. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-are-fern-leaves-shaped-the-way-they-are-and-are-all-ferns-identical-83976">Curious Kids: Why are fern leaves shaped the way they are, and are all ferns identical?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>X-rays are like light rays, but the difference is that they can pass through more stuff. Skin and fat don’t block much of the energy in the x-ray beam. Muscle blocks more, but even more energy is blocked by bone, which is why you can see bones so clearly on x-rays.</p>
<p>An x-ray image shows shades of grey, which is just how much of the x-ray beam manages to get through your body. If the part is very dense (like bone) it will come up white, if it is less dense (like your lungs) it will come up as a darker shade of grey.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196023/original/file-20171123-6072-1f8jwdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196023/original/file-20171123-6072-1f8jwdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196023/original/file-20171123-6072-1f8jwdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196023/original/file-20171123-6072-1f8jwdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196023/original/file-20171123-6072-1f8jwdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196023/original/file-20171123-6072-1f8jwdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196023/original/file-20171123-6072-1f8jwdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196023/original/file-20171123-6072-1f8jwdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=823&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">X-rays help doctors see inside our bodies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pulmonary_pathology/6316268468/in/photolist-aC9wyu-3qVzxb-3qVzq5-fZSuN2-bZYxhd-efC231-cLcn5Q-pYambd-f1QXog-a54Byu-s6ta6E-a54BxW-87Gr6X-dkGDbC-7WJVj3-a54Bz7-5Brq7y-dEWSvb-7iSnfn-drqUtF-fKcZFw-9fsDUU-DkUgwL-7sPcJ-7KcwoT-fCiALt-4p9HJk-sniJCx-aw4zHu-aZjPsa-fhmAJd-5oeG1Y-akpX3w-RMtoAC-p1NXQ-e8A4Xe-9kocs4-7vopgx-F7WFo-f5wTd-nu2UV-kCj1K-eDZDUg-huxuj-3rutGt-5EbHGa-6QP3P5-cnXnD7-6QzjHo-3c7cn4">Flickr/Yale Rosen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Radiographers (the people who work the x-ray machines) can control the amount and strength of the x-ray beam (just like you can make light dimmer or brighter) so that the body parts they want to see come up on the images. </p>
<p>X-rays are used in hospitals to help diagnose and treat many injuries and illnesses. Radiographers use x-ray images in the operating theatre to help guide the surgeons. There’s also a special type of scan called a CT scan. CT scans use lots of x-ray pictures to create fantastic 3D images of the body. </p>
<p>Having too many x-ray scans can be dangerous. They can damage the cells in your body (which is why the radiographer leaves the room while you get your x-ray done). The amount of x-rays used for each picture is tiny though, so if your doctor thinks you need an x-ray picture, don’t worry.</p>
<p>Sometimes the damage to cells is a good thing; a treatment called radiotherapy uses x-rays to kill bad cells (like cancer cells). </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">YouTube video explaining x-rays.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Did you know?</h2>
<p>X-rays were discovered in November 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen – by accident! He was doing an experiment and was surprised when a screen on the other side of the lab glowed. </p>
<p>Wilhelm worked out that some invisible rays were causing it but had no idea what they were. That is why they’re called x-rays, with “x” meaning “I don’t know”! </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-what-started-the-big-bang-79845">Curious Kids: what started the Big Bang?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. You can:</em></p>
<p><em>* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au
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* Tell us on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationEDU">Twitter</a> by tagging <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationEDU">@ConversationEDU</a> with the hashtag #curiouskids, or
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* Tell us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/conversationEDU">Facebook</a></em></p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p><em>Please tell us your name, age and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85895/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Finlay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
X-rays are like light rays, but they can pass through more stuff. Some of the x-ray’s energy is blocked by bone, which is why you can see bones so clearly on x-ray scans.
Karen Finlay, Senior Lecturer Medical Imaging , CQUniversity Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/83941
2017-10-11T00:37:18Z
2017-10-11T00:37:18Z
Marie Curie and her X-ray vehicles’ contribution to World War I battlefield medicine
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189262/original/file-20171006-25752-pat0e4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marie Curie in one of her mobile X-ray units in October 1917.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Curie_-_Mobile_X-Ray-Unit.jpg">Eve Curie</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ask people to name the most famous historical woman of science and their answer will likely be: Madame Marie Curie. Push further and ask what she did, and they might say it was something related to <a href="http://www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=71">radioactivity</a>. (She actually discovered the radioisotopes <a href="https://www.iupac.org/publications/ci/2011/3301/5_adloff.html">radium and polonium</a>.) Some might also know that she was the first woman to win a <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1911/marie-curie-facts.html">Nobel Prize</a>. (She actually won two.)</p>
<p>But few will know she was also a major hero of World War I. In fact, a visitor to her Paris laboratory 100 years ago would not have found either her or her radium on the premises. Her radium was in hiding and she was at war. </p>
<p>For Curie, the war started in early 1914, as German troops headed toward her hometown of Paris. She knew her scientific research needed to be put on hold. So she gathered her entire stock of radium, put it in a lead-lined container, transported it by train to Bordeaux – 375 miles away from Paris – and left it in a safety deposit box at a local bank. She then returned to Paris, confident that she would reclaim her radium after France had won the war.</p>
<p>With the subject of her life’s work hidden far away, she now needed something else to do. Rather than flee the turmoil, she decided to join in the fight. But just how could a middle-aged woman do that? She decided to redirect her scientific skills toward the war effort; not to make weapons, but to save lives.</p>
<h2>X-rays enlisted in the war effort</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189249/original/file-20171006-25752-16upvo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189249/original/file-20171006-25752-16upvo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189249/original/file-20171006-25752-16upvo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189249/original/file-20171006-25752-16upvo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189249/original/file-20171006-25752-16upvo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189249/original/file-20171006-25752-16upvo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189249/original/file-20171006-25752-16upvo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189249/original/file-20171006-25752-16upvo5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">X-ray of a bullet in the heart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bullet_in_heart.jpg">U.S. Army</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.livescience.com/32344-what-are-x-rays.html">X-rays</a>, a type of <a href="https://www.livescience.com/38169-electromagnetism.html">electromagnetic radiation</a>, had been discovered in 1895 by Curie’s fellow Nobel laureate, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1901/rontgen-bio.html">Wilhelm Roentgen</a>. As I describe in my book <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10691.html">“Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation</a>,” almost immediately after their discovery, physicians began using X-rays to image patients’ bones and find foreign objects – like <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/1/1950/1252">bullets</a>.</p>
<p>But at the start of the war, <a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/x-ray2.htm">X-ray machines</a> were still found only in city hospitals, far from the battlefields where wounded troops were being treated. Curie’s solution was to invent the first “radiological car” – a vehicle containing an X-ray machine and photographic darkroom equipment – which could be driven right up to the battlefield where army surgeons could use X-rays to guide their surgeries.</p>
<p>One major obstacle was the need for electrical power to produce the X-rays. Curie solved that problem by incorporating a <a href="http://www.edisontechcenter.org/generators.html">dynamo</a> – a type of electrical generator – into the car’s design. The petroleum-powered car engine could thus provide the required electricity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189295/original/file-20171008-25775-tb6ded.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189295/original/file-20171008-25775-tb6ded.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189295/original/file-20171008-25775-tb6ded.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189295/original/file-20171008-25775-tb6ded.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189295/original/file-20171008-25775-tb6ded.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189295/original/file-20171008-25775-tb6ded.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189295/original/file-20171008-25775-tb6ded.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189295/original/file-20171008-25775-tb6ded.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of Curie’s mobile units used by the French Army.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40504352c">Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Frustrated by delays in getting funding from the French military, Curie approached the Union of Women of France. This philanthropic organization gave her the money needed to produce the first car, which ended up playing an important role in treating the wounded at the <a href="http://www.history.com/news/the-first-battle-of-the-marne-100-years-ago">Battle of Marne</a> in 1914 – a major Allied victory that kept the Germans from entering Paris.</p>
<p>More radiological cars were needed. So Curie exploited her scientific clout to ask wealthy Parisian women to donate vehicles. Soon she had 20, which she outfitted with X-ray equipment. But the cars were useless without trained X-ray operators, so Curie started to train women volunteers. She recruited 20 women for the first training course, which she taught along with her daughter <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1935/joliot-curie-facts.html">Irene</a>, a future Nobel Prize winner herself.</p>
<p>The curriculum included theoretical instruction about the physics of electricity and X-rays as well as practical lessons in anatomy and photographic processing. When that group had finished its training, it left for the front, and Curie then trained more women. In the end, a total of 150 women received X-ray training from Curie.</p>
<p>Not content just to send out her trainees to the battlefront, Curie herself had her own <a href="http://sierrawyllie.weebly.com/little-curies.html">“little Curie”</a> – as the radiological cars were nicknamed – that she took to the front. This required her to learn to drive, change flat tires and even master some rudimentary auto mechanics, like cleaning carburetors. And she also had to deal with car accidents. When her driver careened into a ditch and overturned the vehicle, they righted the car, fixed the damaged equipment as best they could and got back to work.</p>
<p>In addition to the mobile little Curies that traveled around the battlefront, Curie also oversaw the construction of 200 radiological rooms at various fixed field hospitals behind the battle lines. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Medics at a French WWI field hospital locating a bullet with X-ray machine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/stereo.1s04120">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>X-rays’ long shadow for Marie Curie</h2>
<p>Although few, if any, of the women X-ray workers were injured as a consequence of combat, they were not without their casualties. Many <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3520298/">suffered burns from overexposure to X-rays</a>. Curie knew that such high exposures posed future health risks, such as cancer in later life. But there had been no time to perfect X-ray safety practices for the field, so many X-ray workers were overexposed. She worried much about this, and later wrote a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Radiologie-Guerre-French-Marie-Curie-ebook/dp/B00WZVQBDM">book about X-ray safety</a> drawn from her war experiences. </p>
<p>Curie survived the war but was concerned that her intense X-ray work would ultimately cause her demise. Years later, she did contract <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/aplastic-anemia/symptoms-causes/dxc-20266535">aplastic anemia</a>, a blood disorder sometimes produced by high radiation exposure.</p>
<p>Many assumed that her illness was the result of her decades of radium work – it’s well-established that <a href="https://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/documents/fullText/ACC0029.pdf">internalized radium is lethal</a>. But Curie was dismissive of that idea. She had always protected herself from ingesting any radium. Rather, she attributed her illness to the high X-ray exposures she had received during the war. (We will likely never know whether the wartime X-rays contributed to her death in 1934, but a sampling of her remains in 1995 showed her <a href="https://search.proquest.com/docview/204463756?pq-origsite=gscholar">body was indeed free of radium</a>.)</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marie Curie and her daughter Irène in the laboratory after WWI.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-photo.html">© Association Curie Joliot-Curie</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As science’s first woman celebrity, Marie Curie can hardly be called an unsung hero. But the common depiction of her as a one-dimensional person, slaving away in her laboratory with the single-minded purpose of advancing science for science’s sake, is far from the truth.</p>
<p>Marie Curie was a multidimensional person, who worked doggedly as both a scientist and a humanitarian. She was a strong patriot of her adopted homeland, having immigrated to France from Poland. And she leveraged her scientific fame for the benefit of her country’s war effort – using the winnings from her second Nobel Prize to buy war bonds and even trying to melt down her Nobel medals to convert them to cash to buy more.</p>
<p>She didn’t allow her gender to hamper her in a male-dominated world. Instead, she mobilized a small army of women in an effort to reduce human suffering and win World War I. Through her efforts, it is estimated that the total number of wounded soldiers receiving X-ray exams during the war exceeded <a href="http://theinstitute.ieee.org/tech-history/technology-history/how-marie-curie-helped-save-a-million-soldiers-during-world-war-i">one million</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy J. Jorgensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
During World War I, Marie Curie left her lab behind, inventing a mobile X-ray unit that could travel to the battlefront and training 150 women to operate these ‘Little Curies.’
Timothy J. Jorgensen, Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program and Associate Professor of Radiation Medicine, Georgetown University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.