5. Read the passage again and write true or false beside the following
statements. Give right answer for the false statements : 1x 5 = 5
a) The Nobel Prize is one of the most esteemed prizes of the world.
b) Roentgen received his prize for his contribution in medicine.
c) Alfred Nobel dedicated his principal amount of money to the
Nobel Prize winners.
d) He invented dynamite for the sake of Nobel Prize.
e.) Nobel Prize is awarded for a person's stupendous contribution.
Answers
Answer:
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a physicist who had little time for publicity. Like all other scientists the professor from Würzburg University in Franconia always sought recognition from his peers, but Röntgen rarely appeared at scientific conferences or wrote papers, let alone promoted his research findings outside of his field. All this changed after Röntgen’s accidental discovery of X-rays sparked a media storm that meant his findings would have an impact like no other before it.
On the evening of 8 November 1895, Röntgen was in his laboratory studying how cathode-ray tubes emit light. His attention was distracted by a glowing fluorescent screen that was too far from the tube to be affected by the cathode rays. Röntgen didn’t leave his lab for weeks as he tried to investigate the source of the glow. He discovered that the impact of cathode rays on the glass vacuum tube was generating a new kind of invisible ray. The rays had extraordinary penetrative power – they could travel long distances and make the screen glow, even when cardboard, wood, copper and aluminium were placed in the way – and could be recorded on photographic plates.
Röntgen knew immediately that he had to forego his natural reticence and disseminate this important discovery to the scientific community as soon as possible. Over Christmas, he wrote a 10-page article entitled “On a new kind of rays”, which was accepted by the Proceedings of the Würzburg Physical-Medical Society on 28 December. Röntgen named the discovery X-radiation, or X-rays, after the mathematical term ‘X’ that denotes something unknown. (He always preferred this term, even though other researchers insisted on calling it Röntgen rays.)
The article was precise and reserved in tone, with no accompanying images, and so the chances are that most scientists would have ignored the findings. A trip to the post office in Würzburg on New Years’ Day in 1896 changed all that. In Röntgen’s hands were 90 envelopes, each containing a reprint of the article, which were addressed to physicists all over Europe. Twelve of the envelopes, addressed to friends or to distinguished scientists like Lord Kelvin, also contained nine photographs. Röntgen made several photos mainly of the interiors of metal objects, but it was another photo that led to a situation in which “all hell broke loose,” as Röntgen would later complain.