Impacto inicial de la noticia del descubrimiento de los rayos X en la sociedad española

Abstract

The news of the discovery of X-rays spread rapidly throughout Europe, including Spain. In Spain, the news surpassed the academic field, becoming popular through different channels, mainly through the shocking image of the skeleton of a hand. X rays captured the attention of writers and thinkers; they influenced journalism and language; they appeared in advertisements associated with both medical cabinets and miracle products; But, above all, X rays became a metaphor for science as an illuminator of the shadows that accompany the human being. The impressive impact that X-rays discovery had on society at the end of the 19th century has been studied by different authors in the United States, Germany, or France. So far, however, it seems that there has been little discussion about which effects had this fact on Spanish society. Therefore, this paper is aimed to reproduce the diffusion and initial influence of the news of the discovery of X-rays in Spanish society at the end of the 19th century, beyond the scientific, medical, or purely academic field, in order to help to reconstruct the birth process of the use of ionizing radiation in Spain, concluding that it had a similar impact to that of the neighboring countries.