Scotch tape surprises everyone by producing X-rays

As far as we're concerned, sticky tape is mostly just for out-there modding projects, but scientists have confirmed another use for it: X-rays. After hearing word of research in that direction by Soviet scientists in the 1950s, researchers at UCLA peeled scotch tape at 1.18 inches per second in a vacuum chamber and found that X-ray pulses were emitted by the process. A human thumb has already been successfully X-rayed by this technique, and if future investigation proceeds swimmingly, paramedics and aid workers operating off the grid might be able to do X-rays without bulky and dangerous nuclear technologies. We'll admit it -- we never saw scotch tape X-rays coming, but then, neither did you, right?

[Via Switched]

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2008 9:37PM]

Come on, Joseph... How's he gonna scotch-tape his nuts with one hand? He probably used both hands.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:23PM]

Video on the tape:

http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/x-rays/

[TMC Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:24PM]

When you open a self-glueing envelope, you will see blue light comming from the are where the glue is torn apart. I wonder if X-rays are also produced in that process...

[gMcGrew Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:27PM]

This does not bode well for me help my wife wrap Christmas presents...

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 24th 2008 1:35AM]

Innnnteresting... I bet it's related to what happens when you open most band-aids in a very dark place. You get purply sparkly static discharge...

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 31st 2008 2:03PM]

I get a discharge when I help that guy's wife wrap presents....

But it isn't purple.

[TMC Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:27PM]

Is that how Michael Jackson moonwalks?

[TMC Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:28PM]

That was supposed to be a reply to TF

Nothing for you to see here.... move along!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:28PM]

The TSA is gonna love this. Watch tomorrow every security guard is going to have a Scotch Tape gun. "Don't Tape Me Bro!"

[jsmrekar Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:50PM]

RE:X-Rays -- I don't think that word means, what you think it means.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2008 11:57PM]

scotch tape is already prohibited by the TSA anyways

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 24th 2008 4:12AM]

@Dan:

Are you sure?

[wyrdtoo Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:31PM]

Doesn't surprise me at all. I noticed something like this as a kid. Go buy the real Scotch masking tape... the kind that is pale tan in color, 1 inch width... Go into a pitch black room or closet in your house and start peeling. You'll see greenish light emanating from the peel zone. The faster you peel, the more intense (but shorter lived) the burst of light is. I always thought it was some form of static sparking at a minute level.

But don't ask why I was peeling masking tape in the dark.

:D

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2008 7:55PM]

its gamma rays that are green! HULK SMASH!

[essplode Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:35PM]

this is awesome!

[rento Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:39PM]

Banning scotch tape on planes in 4.. 3.. 2..1..

[montusama Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:46PM]

this is interesting bit of news guess i gotta get some scotch tape and make a vacuum!

[Rick36 Posted Oct 23rd 2008 6:52PM]

Surprising but plausible results. As someone else mentioned it has to be done in high vacuum conditions. X-rays are usually made by smacking high energy electrons, ions or even atoms onto a suitable anode inside a vacuum.

If this can be scaled up then medical X-ray apparatus would not need all the expensive and heavy high voltage transformers and power supplies now needed.

[solarbuddy Posted Oct 23rd 2008 7:03PM]

WTF?!? The commies were doing this have a century ago . . . oh, right--that's because our Giant Brains have all been hired by TSA.

[solarbuddy Posted Oct 23rd 2008 7:04PM]

Of course, even Giant Brains sometimes confuse "have" with "half."

[Larz Posted Oct 23rd 2008 7:59PM]

Back in the day, the Russians were doing some crazy shit. Some of which we've only now caught up to. But of course their means weren't so pleasant back then. I'm talking morals out the window, failures severely punished, etc.

[lee7n Posted Oct 23rd 2008 7:04PM]

Aren't X-Rays dangerous and bad for you? That's why the dentist runs out of the room to X-Ray your teeth.

[Narutogrey Posted Oct 23rd 2008 7:40PM]

Small amounts of x-rays are okay. Doctors need to do x-rays everyday, so of course they don't want any additional exposure for no reason. The x-rays you get at the dentist and doctor only slightly increases your risk of cancer by a small percentage.

[Larz Posted Oct 23rd 2008 8:00PM]

Not to mention that we're frequently bombarded by naturally occurring X-Rays in small dosages anyways.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2008 7:33PM]

If a person was in a vacuum and needed an x-ray, I think theres more pressing issues than a fractured elbow. :)

[gt9228a Posted Oct 23rd 2008 7:39PM]

So can you only go through a roll 1 time or can you reuse the rolls to make Xrays? Doesnt it loose its stickiness after 1 unrolling?

[j o q Posted Oct 23rd 2008 7:43PM]

OMG that scintillator is going nuts!!! That's quite a bit of X-ray to cause such visible effects!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2008 8:09PM]

UCLA just lost a lot of credibility in my books... Have they nothing better to do?

[Wwhat Posted Oct 23rd 2008 8:14PM]

If you crush sugar (lifesavers for instance) in a glass in the dark it also emits light (try it, it's fascinating), I wonder what happens with that in a vacuum now.

[Timerider Posted Oct 23rd 2008 9:11PM]

You get a leathal amount of radiation.

[Wwhat Posted Oct 23rd 2008 10:24PM]

Nah, probably just your old cold-fusion.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2008 9:55PM]

time to wrap some scotch tape around Tina Fey

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 23rd 2008 10:24PM]

She probably suffocates annoyingly.

[burnduck Posted Oct 23rd 2008 11:42PM]

Hey! Where's my duct tape?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 24th 2008 2:00AM]

yeah but hey,

has anyone given any thought to the fact that Scotch tape is approximately only half an inch wide or 1.2cm in metric. What would happen if you made the tape 1 inch (2.5cm) wide, or 2 inches (5cm) wide or 6 inches (15cm) wide, or 1 foot (30cm) wide.

Does that mean that the x-ray output would rise exponentially i.e. get stronger, or just be linear ie a wider x-ray image?

Anyone got any ideas?

[technomania Posted Oct 24th 2008 2:07AM]

In Soviet Russia, Scotch Tape X-Ray You!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 24th 2008 2:48AM]

As a photograper, this is old news. I have generated this effect many times over. 35mm film is taped to a spool. While inside a darkroom, you can open a 35mm magazine and remove the film. After loading it onto a developer reel; you tear off the film from the spool, at the taped area. This tearing of the tape causes all of these yellow-green flares. It looks like uranium bursts. At times it has put halos through a few layers of the film. This is radiological effect. This isn't static electricity. I live in Houston, Texas. It is by the coast, and the air is very humid here. I try to tear the film off slowly to prevent this.

This is a cool project.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 24th 2008 10:41AM]

Are you in a vacuum?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 24th 2008 3:28AM]

hehe amazing... who ever thought of this in the first place... crazy...

but ofc it's probably some know scientific fact that got people thining about this at all...

[ecobore Posted Oct 24th 2008 9:54AM]

that's coz you can't SEE X-rays ;-)

[heng Posted Oct 24th 2008 6:23AM]

When unrolling a roll of tape in the dark I noticed it lights but didn't think it would emit xrays too.

[James2432 Posted Oct 24th 2008 7:34AM]

It has to be in a vacuum that way the "little lightning bolts" don't hit the air molecules and release the x-rays

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 23rd 2010 1:10PM]

I can beleive this .....I discovered that when changing my babies disposable nappy (diaper) in the middle of the night in the dark. When I whipped the tape attacement off a bright flash of light occured.....must be something similar.....if it not than I hereby claim this discovery as my own!!! Any one want a tape powered flash light??

[James2432 Posted Oct 24th 2008 7:33AM]

Wow I saw this on daily planet last night. Who would think to put scotch tape in a vacuum and say OMG it make liek teh X-rayz!!!!!1!1!!1!one one two

[stridermt2k Posted Oct 24th 2008 8:04AM]

In space, no one can hear you creating X-Rays with Scotch Tape.





Thanks, 3M!

[Timerider Posted Oct 24th 2008 12:11PM]

Hey strider, I didn't know you came here, too. I thought you were mainly on Gizmodo.

[stridermt2k Posted Oct 26th 2008 8:54AM]

I try to be friends with lots of folks all over the place! :D

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 24th 2008 1:53PM]

Well-known by physics teachers: peeling tape produces 10-20KV via contact electrification and capacitive multiplication ...and high voltage in hard vacuum environment will produce x-rays. Conclusion: RUBBING A BALLOON ON YOUR HEAD IN A HARD VACUUM WILL PRODUCE X-RAYS. Placing human heads and balloons in hard vacuum are mere engineering details. It totally removes the technical challenge if you just use scotch tape instead.

:)

See: http://amasci.com/emotor/sticky.html

[esmphoto Posted Oct 24th 2008 11:50PM]

so um
why were they peeling tape in a vacuum anyway?

[eKalb Posted Oct 25th 2008 4:56PM]

Can you use it to see through peoples clothes?