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Ripped Scotch Tape Emits X-Rays
discovery.com ^ | Oct. 22, 2008 | Malcolm Ritter

Posted on 10/28/2008 10:04:14 PM PDT by neverdem

Associated Press

Just two weeks after a Nobel Prize highlighted theoretical work on subatomic particles, physicists are announcing a startling discovery about a much more familiar form of matter: Scotch tape.

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 said.

"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...

(Excerpt) Read more at dsc.discovery.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: physics; science; scotchtape; xrays
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To: neverdem

41 posted on 10/29/2008 4:56:22 AM PDT by pabianice (Inexplicable and infuriating.)
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To: neverdem

Pregnant women urged to use string instead.


42 posted on 10/29/2008 4:57:55 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: neverdem

I wonder what would happen if you unraveled a roll of toilet paper really, really fast inside a vacuum? That might be one mystery that’s better left unsolved......


43 posted on 10/29/2008 5:04:37 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Spreading manure around helps growth. Spreading wealth around creates manure)
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To: justlurking

Paraphrasing the guy in the article — you need to be careful about eating Wintergreen lifesavers when spacewalking without your spacesuit.


44 posted on 10/29/2008 6:08:01 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: justlurking

Bremstrallung.


45 posted on 10/29/2008 6:10:24 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: neverdem

Not to worry, James V Sokaloff will represent all those factory workers who tape boxes closed and suffer from Sterilization Box Taping Syndrome. They will be due a cash settlement.


46 posted on 10/29/2008 6:15:36 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Ferengi?.....Probably not, but he sure has the lobes)
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