Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains How X-Rays Work

[@StarTalk]

Do you remember a world before x-rays?

[@princeindrajitlawlaha7027]

! 💝 💯 👏 🎉 🎃 🙏 🚀 👍 🤖 🎅 ✝ 🎄 🌝 !

[@chancemathews7057]

I don’t remember a world before computers

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

No, they were already around when I was born.

[@sekaramochi1944]

I remember when deadpool wasn't allowed on planes just because , the ultimate security search, lord Chuck knows 🤔😉

[@yun7162]

I remember a time before a russian family moved above me and started blasting me with x-ray tracking every step i make banging on my ceiling every time youtube video finishes

[@loukramer9665]

I come for the science, I stay for the relationship between Neil and Chuck.

[@blessedveteran]

Agreed, perfect duo

[@nannybanhammer8316]

I've worked with x-ray, fluoroscopes, mammography for many years... Never heard it explained so well.

[@mawkeetwo]

I love watching these episodes... It's really cool to listen to someone who has such a complex, nuanced, insightful and incredible mind, specially when that someone co-hosts the show with the amazing Neil deGrasse Tyson!

[@thatdudeinasuit5422]

I'm a security guard and part of the qualification course for that was learning how to use security X-ray machines I remember being told about how different materials manifest as different colours in the display I always wondered how they got the coloured bit.

[@flampy77]

This is unbelievable, I literally just got X-ray used on my spine today duo to upperback pain, What a great time to understand it !

[@carlcat]

I'm 75 years of age and I remember a time in the 50's when there were small X-Ray machines that were put in shoe stores so anyone could walk up to one, insert their foot into a space on the floor, look through a viewer and you could see your foot in skeleton images moving around like a flouroscope. The machine was on all the time. I can only imagine how dangerous it was not only for customers looking at their foot bones in real time but for the store employees exposed to this machine day in and day out. Eventually, they removed the machines when they realized how dangerous it was.

[@StarTalk]

Thanks for sharing your fascinating anecdote. How times have changed!

[@carlcat]

@@StarTalk Well, sorta, now you have to worry about the air you breathe, the water you drink, the food you eat, the mercury and plastic in the fish. As long as you avoid those things you'll be good to go.⁉

[@medicwebber3037]

That’s AMAZING!! It’s like those nuclear toy kits, (a version of ‘the child’s first electronics kits’, etc.), that actually had a little plutonium in them. It’s incredible to think how fascinated people were but how little they understood these things. I’m fairly certain I would have been one of the people eager to stick my foot in there and wiggle it around. Thanks for commenting. I’ve never heard that before.

[@carlcat]

@@medicwebber3037 That was downtown Brooklyn New York. It was the one and only time I ever saw one. Just as well I could have gotten mutant toes that glowed in the dark.

[@rhyoliteaquacade]

Old black and white Television sets that used tubes generated some X-Rays from one particular High Voltage rectifier tube. In fact, a small and powerful X-Ray generator can be made from one if you raise the potential. I always wondered if that was why parents told kids not to get so close. Did they know?

[@retoscholly5538]

You guys make seemingly mundane things super interesting! I wish I were as good a science communicator as you.

[@wonder_9315]

Can’t believe I’m going to school to learn what NDG taught me in 10 minutes

[@Raz.C]

What did you actually learn? You heard an entertaining story, but you didn't really learn anything useful about X-rays, did you? I mean, do you know what X-rays actually are/ what they're 'made of?' Do you know how to artificially produce x-rays? Do you know the frequency or the wavelength of the EM spectrum that corresponds to x-rays? Do you know if x-rays are considered ionising or non-ionising radiation? Do you know the difference? Please don't make the mistake of thinking that an interesting story is in any way similar to learning how things work, how they behave and what they're made of. Maybe you live in the usa and if so, I pity you for living in a developed country that has worse schools than many undeveloped nations (ie - third world countries). But even if that IS the case, it doesn't mean that you can't learn about nature on your own. And learning about things can be even more interesting than hearing an entertaining story. If you want to know the hidden secrets of the universe and understand how and why things do what they do, then I'd recommend that you study Chemistry in university. Chemistry is the study of atoms/ molecules and how they behave, thus what they will/ won't react with. And since all the matter that you'll ever encounter in your life is made of atoms/ molecules, as a competent chemist, you'll have a factual understanding of the world around you (and how to reshape it). This is part of the reason that the Los Alamos program that made the world's first nuclear weapons, chose Oppenheimer (a chemist) to head the program. Please try to understand the difference here- Entertaining stories are great at entertaining people but they don't really teach you about what things are/ how they work. Learning about what things are and how they work might not be very entertaining, but it teaches you about the actual nature of reality. I guess you have to ask yourself a question: "Would you rather learn how to repeat entertaining stories told by other people? Or would you rather learn about how nature works?"

[@leeneale5494]

@@Raz.C jesus someone had a bad day 🤔 did your wife leave u 🤣💀

[@sebastianfernandez2905]

@@leeneale5494 he just stating facts

[@Raz.C]

@@leeneale5494 It just frustrates me to see people confusing "I heard an interesting story" with "I understand the nature of this phenomenon." I frequently see these sorts of comments here, all from school kids, who all mistakenly think that they're learning something useful. I was a kid too, once upon a time. I remember that school was boring and that we were forced to go there, with no real choice in the matter. I can understand how a kid might watch something interesting and think "Wow! I really learned a LOT from that!" But really, what did they learn? This particular video isn't overly objectionable because NDGT didn't make any factual errors. For reference, if you go to the comments section for the NDGT explainer video on fire, you'll be able to see the comment I wrote, explaining all the things Neil got wrong in that 'explainer.' So "Yeah," for those reasons, I don't like to see kids making the mistake of thinking that an interesting anecdote can act as a substitute for an education.

[@ariannanorris-landry4428]

He was able to explain it so quickly because he already did at least 10 years in the trenches of Academia so we don't have to

[@notmr.niceguy216]

Thanks for the non stop information and laughs Neil and Chuck.

[@blackpanther6389]

Lol I love when Neil says "Stop" while he's laughing at Chuck's antics. Interesting and cool video on X-Rays!

[@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88]

I was waiting for Chuck to start yelling, _"Squat and cough, squat and cough!"_ when he was talking about cavity searching the mini x-ray machine guy 😆😎

[@sapelesteve]

Another excellent explainer video Neil! The first X-rays were thought to be unknowingly produced in an experiment by William Morgan in 1785. In 1875, Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen did the definitive experiments that demonstrated X-rays for the first time. In fact, he X-rayed his wife's hand (the first X-ray ever taken) and upon showing her the photographic image, she exclaimed "I have seen my death"!

[@BibliotecadeUrokhan]

Congrats for the 2 millions Professor Tyson

[@Life_42]

StarTalk is one of the best things to happen on Earth!

[@sebastianlopez9433]

Wilhelm Röntgen is buried in the old cemetery of Gießen in Germany, sometimes you see students visiting his grave, and drinking in his name before a physics exam...

[@BandsGiddy]

Weird cultish behaviour...

[@GeorgePap99]

Just last night I was watching a video by Astronio (Neil you probably remember him, Greek Astrophysicist you made a video with) and it was all about colors and how light beyond the visible light spectrum would look like. Is there any way our brain would be able to coprehend IR or UV light for instance? Could we ever possibly make our brains more sensitive to these bands? Or are they but our eyes arent?

[@FAKMAN123]

First i was scared my phone was listening to me but now my hero, Niel deGrasse Tyson, himself is listening too! I got a Radiology Course coming up as a Dental Assistant so I’ve been talking about x-rays a lot recently 😂

[@montamiddleton9318]

I was a dental assistant for 37 years. You are lucky you won't have to deal with the dunk tanks and chemicals we had to use to develope those films. Lol

[@BlueDreamGaming]

Love you Neil and Chuck you guys are awesome! =)

[@higgeltypiggelty1605]

I absolutely love these, I’m always happy to listen to someone explain my late-night/shower thoughts😊

[@Joonzi]

I woke up this morning and this question popped in my head, how does an x-ray work? How does it see through the flesh? .. opened YT and here this was! What?! 😄

[@MrGMawson2438]

Great video guys

[@TheLA384]

I thought I had to correct you Neil. You said the gold ring blocked even more x-rays, making that part pitch-black. But in today's x-ray photos, the lack of x-rays are presented as white. However, I looked up the first x-ray photo, and the ring and bones were indeed black. So somewhere along the way, someone decided it's better to invert the colors. Interesting.

[@MrT------5743]

Did you even watch this video? He talked about the more modern outputs of the x-ray machines.

[@TheLA384]

@@MrT------5743 I got kinda excited in pointing it out, probably missing the rest of the video on the first run. So i watched it again, but i dont think there is any mention of the inversion of black/white. Neil mentioned the blue and red colors to highlight stuff so it gets recognized more easily, but that is not what i meant. Not sure if it is like this in general, but at least in dentistry, material that absorps x-rays is shown as white instead of black (like it was on Röntgen's first experiments, and what Neil was saying in the video). That difference is what i'm trying to point out. Maybe it's difficult to understand what i'm trying to say, that would be because English isn't my native language and i sometimes struggle with using the correct words and correct grammar. ^_^

[@MrT------5743]

@@TheLA384 Well X-Rays are different than light. If x-rays are blocked, that is an absence of those frequencies. It is probably a result of the x-ray film itself. Same with photographs back before they were all digital. The film was an inverse (called a negative) to the actual picture. Development of the film reverses it back again. This is probably not what was seen in the very first x-rays. The x-ray film probably changed how they were viewed from the initial way he saw the blocked x-rays being black. Do you remember actual film camera's? the places you would take the film to would develop the pictures and let you keep the negatives. They were inverted to a normal picture. The film itself was correct and after the development reversed (or inverted) the image.

[@TheLA384]

@@MrT------5743 Maybe, but it's something Neil could've shed a light on :D

[@MrT------5743]

@@TheLA384 Deep history of x-ray technology isn't that entertaining. StarTalk never goes that deep into any subjects.

[@MisterTee2010]

Learn something new every time i watch your channel.

[@shivasoni2064]

Expressing love to STARTALK from INDIA!!!!!!

[@wmtub]

This was really interesting. Thank you very much.

[@SemperMaximus]

Chuck never stops coming up with hilarious lines 😂😂What a fantastic duo!

[@randardoin1161]

But... I wish Chuck would learn comedic timing. He interrupts Neil during explanations and adds little to nothing to the discussion.

[@SemperMaximus]

@@randardoin1161 Good point and i agree

[@jamesmorgan1063]

A good lecture of applied physics that is relevant to society compared to the other esoteric disciplines of physics.

[@dusermiginte4647]

Startalk is deep science dumbed down for ordinary people.. I love it! Keep it up guys, this is awesone for us people that are not as bright as you bright people.. 🥰😃 My english sucks though. :/

[@inkaddo]

That ad came out of nowhere!

[@MarcelHuguenin]

Great one!

[@rockyewelljr9781]

When they had some x ray machines at the store to check your feet for shoe sizes

[@msmith53]

Yes, Buster Brown shoe stores had such devises....

[@HexerPsy]

When the doctor used to check your chest with a phosphor screen and put his head in the exit beam...

[@timk5867]

Bob and Tom

[@ary-here]

I love chuck!!! He makes this show so entertaining...

[@jesseevans2977]

I love this channel, and I've watched Cosmos at least a hundred times. Would you make a video about Theia and the formation of the moon?

[@wagonburner7407]

My absolute favorite thing to do is get baked and listen to this genius ramble

[@connorwhite2745]

Yo that suitcase ad could’ve been placed a little better, great episode tho no hate I love this series

[@Ryan-xh7pe]

just learned today in my astronomy class how the accreation disc of a black hole gets so hot that it gives off x-rays when it absorbs the gas of its binary star

[@charleslomanto]

Full circle indeed, what a great story!

[@MontyFondatent]

This was an awesome explanation 👏

[@davidjames8505]

I remember this from his book accessory to war! I love what you do, keep up the amazing work 👏

[@miltonayala3845]

I think of Tesla every time I see anything electrical. Look at that Tesla coil- is just a transformer. Look at that Brushless motor. Wow look at that transmission line from Nevada to California. Wow look at that X-ray. Remote control, radio, telegraph …..my man Nik should had won like 100 Nobels. I think in Electrons. Tesla The Issac Newton of the Electrical universe.

[@CarletonTorpin]

I appreciate the free content, Star Talk, but please find a better place in the video to put the embedded Sponsor ad.

[@blankfall]

Thanks for posting this. That felt so rude. I was genuinely offended. Felt like someone changed my video 😢

[@MrT------5743]

@@blankfall Stop being offended by something as mundane as an ad in a youtube video. Wow

[@fishstix4209]

11:55 just chuck's "prayer" beads 🤣🤣🤣

[@ZenRyoku]

being able to organize and establish whatever protocols that are needed.

[@Christian-kg6uc]

I was all crazy looking for the skip button when the ad came up x'D

[@MidwestWind]

I pay for KZbin Premium. Please don’t force ad videos in the timeline

[@blankfall]

Omg. Glad u posted this . I was going insane wondering if anyone noticed it. I guess no one brought it up yet cause they must be use to it but Um imma unsubscribe if this happens again. Like no warning just spam.

[@MidwestWind]

@@blankfall I don’t wanna unsubscribe but I may have to out of principle. I already dislike watching “sponsored segments” of a video, but a straight up raw advertisement is not cool.

[@Nachtaktiv2000]

skip 30seconds and done

[@jacktellerson3822]

Can you explain Black scatter next?

[@micksedunary7304]

Slightly os topic but you mentioned space and stuff so if someone succeeded in approaching the speed of light how would they stop at the other end?

[@asan1050]

Thanks Much !

[@TwitterPaulsVersion]

I missed you guys 💕

[@roblena7977]

Really bugs me, imagine if we had a teacher like this in every class room for a year. Just a year....

[@420acid5]

Love the show! ❤🇳🇱🙌🏼

[@MrGMawson2438]

Evening here from the UK

[@ilaphroaig]

8:36 lol, I speak German and this was totaly funny. Didn't know what you said first. But, it was a nice try.

[@Zurpanik]

I'm sorry, there was NOT a commercial embedded in the middle of this right? Because that would be absolutely disgusting and not appropriate for StarTalk whatsoever - let's please not do that again. Dedicated sections are fine at the beginning or end with Lord Nice, but none of this other garbage. Please continue to respect us! Love you guys and the team!

[@markrichards9646]

Atomic bombs emit strong X-rays when detonated. People who were present during tests of atomic bombs reported they could see their bones as well as other people’s skeletons, even with their eyes closed, when the bombs were detonated.

[@firstbornbirdman]

Facts. There is actual footage of this floating around on u tube. Fascinating to watch.

[@murasaki848]

It's not because of the x-rays. Eyes cannot detect x-ray wavelengths. It was simply because the visible light is so bright from the bombs that they could see the shadow of the bones, no different than when you hold a bright flashlight behind your fingers.

[@tanksblitz4934]

Science & comedy Nice work

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

Neil and Chuck for 2024

[@OrlanCEO]

That first ad you guys showed technically is against KZbin Policy. You can't put a regular ad that looks like an ad that KZbin will put because they can get confused for each other. That's why all ad KZbinr put are personalized ads spoken by the KZbinr himself.

[@berndhendricks]

In the German language Roentgen, the inventor's name, is a verb. My doctor "roentgen" my arm. I read that Roentgen called the rays he discovered "X" because he did not know what it was.

[@sarge4455]

That’s pretty cool 😎

[@SaurabhOKumar]

What about X-RAYs for medicals or Hospitals maybe like for symptoms diagnostic analysis? 🧐

[@asafreindel5137]

It was the hand of Roentgen's wife, not his own, in the first ever X-ray photo of a hand. Love StarTalk.

[@lcflngn]

Saw fascinating TSA new machines just recently, love to know what’s up with that. Otoh, would rather most folks would not know…

[@leanna74]

I just had a whole heap of X-rays done, that helps get a fuller picture. Next video cat scans and what the blue dye is.

[@terryf5131]

Neil ...when I was a kid my Gramma would always say before every airline trip.. "I hope I don't end up in Cuba"...I didn't realize she kinda wasn't joking.🤠

[@adriancarter1426]

Some atoms must be larger or smaller than other atoms

[@billdodson207]

Agree with Chuck, pajamas should stay home or in the suitcase.

[@murasaki848]

Second this. In truth in many places I just want to scream "THOSE AREN'T PANTS" at people. But especially when taking a flight, far aside from the aesthetics, this is a bad habit people have gotten into. In the extremely unlikely event that the aircraft has a problem and has to put back down, even at a major airport, you're now going to be evacuated out on the field and be exposed to the elements and sometimes even really cranky wildlife for what could be an extended period. Guarantee you'll regret being on 120 degree pavement in flip flops or below freezing with wind chill in sweats/shorts/yoga pants.

[@Raz.C]

TSA?? Here in Australia, we're still allowed to board planes with knives on our person! Ok, so maybe that's not really, technically, true... What happened was, my friend came to pick me up from the airport and went through the security screening area, to meet me at the gate, as soon as I stepped off the plane. He had forgotten that he had a folding knife attached to his belt and yet he made it through the screening area without raising any eyebrows. Of course, our security measures are more simple; It's just a metal detector and occasional "random" screenings. Maybe he just passed through the metal detector on a day when it wasn't working properly?

[@midnightchurningspriteshaq8533]

absence of light representing forms reminds me of "negative space" concepts for geometrical objects

[@jamiboothe]

Neil, I must disagree about x-rays passing through glass. Where I work, we build very expensive light bulbs, that operate under tremendous pressures and temperatures, so we use fused quartz for the envelope. We have a Nikon XT V 160 x-ray machine for some inspection processes, and it has no problem looking through the quartz. We take thickness measurements of the glass, and a very interesting aspect about x-rays, is the only way to calibrate the dimensions, is how far the cathode is from the object being measured. For this, we would look at a known thickness of a component, and carefully place the cathode at the proper distance for the calibration. This would become problematic if the anode and cathode shafts on the lamp were not straight. At that point, each measurement needs to be calibrated.

[@HexerPsy]

Nice nice :D Radiotherapy technologist here. Awesome to learn about this application! I would be curious to know what the resolution was of your measurement. So whats the minimum thickness difference you can measure on the quartz layer? (hope I understood it right). Little fun fact, this reminds me of the origin of the MRI. Now commonly known for imaging patients and very dangerous to bring metal objects close to the machine. But before the medical application the MRI was used to measure purity of metal samples in the industry XD In the last years we figured out to combine a linear accelerator with an MRI scanner, so we can treat cancer patients with 7MV x rays while making real time MRIs. Tech is awesome :D

[@shortkari]

@@HexerPsy 7 MeV right? Not 7MV. 🙂

[@HexerPsy]

@@shortkari nono -- I am guessing you have some technical knowledge :D 7MV could be considered more of a technical term, than a specific energy measurement. Within the x ray business MeV refers to the voltage of a beam of electrons which is uniformly 7MeV due to the filtering applied by bending magnets. 7MV refers to the use of that electron beam, which then gets shot into a tungsten target, converted into x rays. These x rays are along a "triangle" spectrum (plz google 6MV spectrum for some example pictures), of which the maximum photon energy is 7MeV, and as energy goes down the number of photons goes up. That is the nature of bremstralung conversion. Of course you want to filter the weakest photons, since they dont meaningfully contribute to the treatment, the remaining average photon energy is somewhere 2-3 MeV. You can treat using the electron beam or the x-ray beam. But their application and treatment effect is wildly different, and too technical to explain here.

[@albertobarrios6276]

What was that ad half way through the video

[@tempo417]

Finally the goats are back

[@JCtheMusicMan_]

I just got an x-ray exam at the doctors office 😂 💜

[@5iftySix]

I have Sprint. I can confirm, Chuck is right

[@joseimpact]

chuck going all in with that cavity search 😂

[@SAMURIADI]

funfact wet hair looks like C4 apparently, multiple times in tsa they ask "sir please pull out your hair from your jacket and put your hands up"

[@oneplaneteer1708]

Why was there a suitcase ad?

[@SlickTim9905]

I remember x-ray eyeglasses being sold in comic books

[@paradoxxaudiovisualproduct9430]

Awesome

[@Shermanbay]

I'm old enough to remember when you could go into a shoe store and X-Ray your feet! Ostensibly this was to check the fit of shoes.

[@EM-qx3hx]

So what about the body scan they do? Are we being subjected to complete body Xrays at every international gate security? Why do we have to put our hands above our heads? Would you do another Explainer about that?

[@KeljuIvan]

I guess the principle is the same, but it's not xrays, but some low frequency radiation that doesn't pass through the skin. So that device only detects things on the person, not inside.

[@MrT------5743]

The reason you put your hands up is to help not have body parts overlapping and showing more area's where you might conceal something. Like in your arm pits.

[@HexerPsy]

Hahah no, Kelljuvan is wrong. There are legal limits to what dose the body scanner can give you, so they are not allowed to use a lot of xrays that would allow for images that pass through the body. But the body scan doesnt need to. Ironically, a large part of the dose of an x rays gets reflected back to the source. Like any light that hits an object, it reflects. X rays too, pass through clothes and bounce off on or inside of the skin and come back to the machine. You raise your arms and spread your legs because this machine cant actually look through you. This gives them an image of your skin surface. Any significant objects in/under your clothes are then going to stand out and be found. -radiotherapy technologist; x-rays are part of my job.

[@DaBlondDude]

And to think when X-ray machines first came out nobody knew they were dangerous so folks had them in their homes as entertainment devices for parties and such.

[@doctauglyd9861]

I'm gonna learn to extend my conciousness onto others feel where you sick

[@erdemmemisyazici3950]

We used to be less paranoid actually about people hurting each other. We were presented with a view that because the Fire Nation attacked, err sorry, 9/11 attacks, we need to throw away all respect to privacy and get into everyone's everything. People tolerated it for safety, and looked ahead to better days. Those days never came, instead the tech industry rose to power and now we're trying to buy and sell even medical data of everyone. I'm still waiting for everyone to respect privacy once again and start making laws that cover all states. A world where you don't need to scan everyone's everything was great. I miss that.

[@dif1754]

Riccardo Giacconi and x-rays astronomy

[@erikk77]

I once had a job where I had to transport those "heavy metal curtains". Those things are so heavy no cardboard box could hold them. I just placed them flat on the cart.

[@kubek]

I've never been to an airport to be honest. In all my life I never wanted to travel anywhere far. I still don't and I'm over 40. I just don't get it. But I've heard about all those xrays. I've heard about xray machines being made of telescopes though. It's really a cool story.

[@Justme-vz6kz]

“You’re giving meaning to the absence of sunlight”

[@trickyjrmjrm5252]

I thought my KZbin red had went away for a minute there with that randomly placed commercial

[@Beegee1952]

As a retired flight attendant I agree! Put some real clothes on!

[@gekylafas]

We call them x-rays (ακτίνες Χ) in Greek too.

[@best-partplay]

Hello Neil... Would you also educate us on non Newtonian fluid please?

[@MrOoofah]

I'm going through my sixths cycle of chemo/radiation as I face stage 4 colon cancer. I've made my nephews/nieces mandatory viewing . They are young yet know NOW just how important it is to practice responsible recycling.

[@fookyuunsa678]

Please run for president.

[@sparkyprojects]

It was his wife's wedding ring in the famous photo There's video of a guy going through the X ray at an airport ;)

[@MyLostToys]

6:58 This is comedy +

[@Seeds-Of-The-Wayside]

I like when there's seagulls in the parking lot and I can throw my fast food scraps at them

[@Seeds-Of-The-Wayside]

Watch them battle it out for a pizza crust...

[@smr39msncom]

I hope that Neil explains Nuclear Medicine and PET scans someday

[@sgottoboni]

A bone to pick with this video. I pay for no commercials on my KZbin subscription. WTF

[@Peccath]

Now you have to pay Neil as well.

[@chasingrainbowsbackwards]

The ad was a horrible transition

[@blankfall]

Fire the editor 😅

[@chasingrainbowsbackwards]

@@blankfall Can't we get a good barn doors wipe here??