Scotch tape produces X-Rays.
Yes. You read that correctly.
SCOTCH TAPE CAN PRODUCE X-RAYS.
Scotch tape (available pretty much anywhere for a buck or two), held to its roll by van der Waals forces (the weakest in chemistry), can produce x-rays strong enough to image bones when peeled in a moderate vacuum. According to the paper, the van der Waals force is 100 times too small to produce even a single visible light photon, yet here they can get enough light to see out of it.
Also, did I mention the x-rays?
Watch the video.
Aside: Notice that the professor is wearing a radiation badge, but the grad students are not.
This is huge. In the video, they mention x-ray imaging for developing countries. As in, an x-ray machine that can be operated with a hand crank or a bicycle. They even mention that this phenomenon could be used to jumpstart fusion, which is pretty awesome, but that usually doesn't pan out so well. (see also: sonoluminescence)
Just when you think the only questions are the boring ones (where did the universe come from, blah blah blah) science throws you a total curveball. Who thought there was anything interesting left to discover about scotch tape?
1 comments:
What I want to know is how on earth they came up with the idea to test the x-ray emissions of scotch tape in the first place. Or who knows, maybe 3M was curious about how their product would behave in space or something.
That'd be the kind of question that you don't hand to your own R&D department, but rather fund an academic research group to answer for you.
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