MEDIA ADVISORY

TO:                      News and PSA Directors

FROM:                 UAF College of Natural Sciences

SUBJECT:            100th Anniversary of X-Ray Discovery and First Radio Communications

LOCATION:         UAF’s Pearl Berry Boyd Hall, 201 Natural Sciences Facility

DATE & TIME:     Wednesday, November 29, 7 p.m.

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of X-rays, considered the beginning of modern physics and a major advance for the fields of science and medicine.

Wilhelm Roentgen’s X-ray discovery was made Nov. 8, 1895 while the German scientist experimented with electrical discharges in gases. His work paved the way for the discovery of radioactivity and the electron, exploration of the atom and the birth of nuclear physics.

X-rays are electromagnetic radiation of very short wave lengths, capable of penetrating solid substances. Wave lengths and electromagnetism are also important components of another event celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

In 1895, Italy’s Guglielmo Marconi succeeded in transmitting for the first time in history a radio message about a mile to his father’s estate just outside Bolgona. Soon after, the British post office invited Marconi to the United Kingdom and short wave radio communication among European countries began.

UAF’s Sydney Chapman Professor in Physical Science, Dr. Keith Runcorn, will explain the significance of these two events, which have dominated human life in the 20th century, during a free public lecture, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 7 p.m., at the Natural Sciences Facility’s Boyd Lecture Hall. A science demonstration by John Petersen of UAF’s physics lab will accompany Runcorn’s lecture.

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CONTACT: Tonya Taylor, College of Natural Sciences, 474-7758.

DPD/11-22-95/96-33 med.adv.