NEW YORK, Oct. 22, 2008
Scotch Tape Found To Emit X-Rays
New Research Revives Old Findings; Could Result In Inexpensive X-Ray Machines
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This undated image provided by the UCLA Laboratory of Low Temperatures and Acoustics shows an x-ray dental detector on top of a vacuum chamber with a roll of Scotch tape mounted on ball bearings inside. (AP Photo, file)
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Fast Facts Nobel Notables Some curious facts about the Nobel Prizes.
It turns out that if you peel the popular adhesive tape off its roll in a vacuum chamber, it emits X-rays. The researchers even made an X-ray image of one of their fingers.
Who knew? Actually, more than 50 years ago, some Russian scientists reported evidence of X-rays from peeling sticky tape off glass. But the new work demonstrates that you can get a lot of X-rays, a study co-author says.
"We were very surprised," said Juan Escobar. "The power you could get from just peeling tape was enormous."
Escobar, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, reports the work with UCLA colleagues in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
He suggests that with some refinements, the process might be harnessed for making inexpensive X-ray machines for paramedics or for places where electricity is expensive or hard to get. After all, you could peel tape or do something similar in such machines with just human power, like cranking.
The researchers and UCLA have applied for a patent covering such devices.
In the new work, a machine peeled ordinary Scotch tape off a roll in a vacuum chamber at about 1.2 inches per second. Rapid pulses of X-rays, each about a billionth of a second long, emerged from very close to where the tape was coming off the roll.
That's where electrons jumped from the roll to the sticky underside of the tape that was being pulled away, a journey of about two-thousandths of an inch, Escobar said. When those electrons struck the sticky side they slowed down, and that slowing made them emit X-rays.
So is this a health hazard for unsuspecting tape-peelers?
Escobar noted that no X-rays are produced in the presence of air. You need to work in a vacuum - not exactly an everyday situation.
"If you're going to peel tape in a vacuum, you should be extra careful," he said. But "I will continue to use Scotch tape during my daily life, and I think it's safe to do it in your office. No guarantees."
James Hevezi, who chairs the American College of Radiology's Commission on Medical Physics, said the notion of developing an X-ray machine from the new finding was "a very interesting idea, and I think it should be carried further in research."
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Add a Comment See all 21 Comments
- It makes me stop and wonder where my tax dollars are going. Scientists are busy at work in laboratories, peeling tape in a vacuum with our money..and it just so happens they brought along geiger counters. Monumental coincidences, if you ask me.
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- Scotch in the UK knew this way back in 1985.
No one till now has been able to explain the thought behind the nature of the star in the advert to the rest of us however till now!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmWOsPSS7XA - Reply to this comment
...and if you peel a banana you will get yellow-rays presumably?
Oh go on - pull the other one. Was this Scotch tape story published on April 1st? It sounds like the sort of spoof the papers here in England publish once a year at the beginning of April- Reply to this comment
- You don''t need tape if you have a vacuum, stuff will just stayed sucked in place...
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- I doubt they''ll be able to make a portable x-ray machine that uses scotch tape, unless they use a lot of tape, and get it to work in a vacuum environment. The x-ray energy emitted would be extremely weak and unable to penetrate much of anything.
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- no they didn''''t ... it was already discovered by someone else over 50 years ago ... not patentable.
Posted by bobnjersey at 06:12 PM : Oct 22, 2008
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If someone can get a copyright and charge you for singing "Happy Birthday To You" then they can get a patent on this.
It does not matter who invented it. If the first people didn''t file for a patent yet it goes to the first one who gets to the patent office tomorrow. That''s how Bell got the patent on the telephone. Bell based his telephone on another person''s idea and beat the other inventor to the patent office by 3 hours. - Reply to this comment
- Interesting
- Reply to this comment
- anyone peel open a band aid in the dark? it glows while peeling..
- Reply to this comment
- no they didn''t ... it was already discovered by someone else over 50 years ago ... not patentable.
Posted by bobnjersey at 06:12 PM : Oct 22, 2008
The patent is not for the discovery that tape can emit x-ray. It''s for the use of tape in x-ray machines. Still potentially patentable. - Reply to this comment
- If x-rays come come from scotch tape I wonder what come from the all purpose duct tape.
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To find out how duct tape is made, ask the expert...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUMjcqQL2EI - Reply to this comment
- If x-rays come come from scotch tape I wonder what come from the all purpose duct tape.
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Posted by d7767w
Weapons grade plutonium? - Reply to this comment
- ["They should be denied the patent. They did not invent anything. Only discovered an alternative use for something already invented."--Posted by eggy1620
They discovered a new method for producing X-rays--patentable. ]
[Posted by johnbrown888 at 05:26 PM : Oct 22, 2008]
no they didn''t ... it was already discovered by someone else over 50 years ago ... not patentable.
"Who knew? Actually, more than 50 years ago, some Russian scientists reported evidence of X-rays from peeling sticky tape off glass. But the new work demonstrates that you can get a lot of X-rays, a study co-author says". - Reply to this comment
- Guess we are going to have to bomb the Iranian tape factory, too.
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- Oh, good. I don''t have to go to the expensive hospital...
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- "So, by your logic, Henry Ford should have been denied a patent for the Model T - because someone had already invented the wheel?" Posted by OneAmerican7
No, the patent for the internal combustion engine as used to power cars would belong to Otto Benz.
See how many lies they taught you in school? - Reply to this comment
- Man, this is so cool.. I bet with stronger adhesives, more xrays are generated, since greater power is required to seperate the bonds.
I wonder what happens when you rub glass with fur in a vacuum, besides making static.. I bet X-Rays are generated also..
What kind of adhesive do they use??
hey 3M, spill the beans - Reply to this comment
- Stupid Patent Office will likely approve this claim. They have awarded patents for same principles to multiple claimants, given patents for DNA, and other absurdities.
- Reply to this comment
- They did not invent anything. Only discovered an alternative use for something already invented.
Posted by eggy1620 at 02:00 PM : Oct 22, 2008
A process, a particular way of doing things, can be patented just like an invention. So yes, peeling scotch tape to power a x-ray machine, is potentially patentable. - Reply to this comment
- OneAmerican7, Henry Ford did not patent the Model T. He may have patented the assembly line, but I doubt it. Your logic is completely missing.
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- The patents are for alternative uses, products and research that could come from this discovery not for scotch tape itself. Many patents are granted as PHD grad students write their final term papers even before submitting them for review before the universty.
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