"More things in heaven and earth".

Abstract

In this Presidential Address I would like to turn aside from the ordinary everyday things which occupy us in radiology, the apparatus and the techniques, and the skills both diagnostic and therapeutic, and look briefly at what is perhaps more central to our calling. I refer of course to the radiation itself. Generally speaking, this radiation receives less attention than the more tangible parts of our equipment. Perhaps this is because we still associate it in some way with the “unknown quantity” by which Röntgen first named his X rays. I hope to be able to show you how these rays, so vital to our work, still have strange and puzzling qualities, and to illustrate in a simple way how Nature seems at heart still to present us with some profound and unfathomable mysteries. Somehow, even within our special field of radiology she seems to deny us an answer to many of our simplest and most elementary questions. As you know, Wilhelm Röntgen made his historic discovery in 1895. Little did he realize at the time that he was not only opening up a new chapter in the history of medical diagnosis, but that his invisible rays were to play a significant part too in the unfolding drama of scientific discovery in the field of atomic physics which was to continue for more than 50 years.