Today’s Google Doodle honors the X-Ray with a transparent logo packed with inside jokes.
Accidentally discovered by German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen in 1895 during an experiment with cathode rays, an X-Ray (or X-radiation) is a form of electromagnetic radiation generated inside a high-voltage vacuum tube. Electrons from a cathode ray reach a velocity and collide, creating an electric current which made it possible to see through objects, even people, for the first time. Just a week after his accidental discovery, Roentgen took the first X-Ray photo of his wife’s hand – wedding ring, bones and all.
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Today’s Doodle, a peek behind the skin of Google’s iconic logo, flickers with a radioactive glow and even gives us a little chuckle from April Fool’s past. The X-Rayed logo’s second “g” shows a bird’s wingbone, a reference to Google’s “Pigeonrank” prank of 2002, where the company claimed that its page ranking system was decided solely by pigeon pecks. (via Telegraph)