Exploring Unique and Surprising Uses of X-Rays

When people think of x-rays, they often automatically imagine them being used in hospitals – primarily to scan broken bones and for other similar forms of treatment. However, it is not the case that this is the only use for this form of technology, and there are actually different ways in which it can prove to be useful in other areas of life. Here, this blog post will be looking closer at what some of these happen to be.

Airport Security

You will often find yourself walking through an x-ray machine when airport security checks are being done. Your baggage will usually go through exactly the same process as you did as a way of finding out if there is anything in there that should not be. Obviously, this saves a great deal of time and is highly useful in terms of efficiency as it means that not every single bag is going to have to be opened up to be inspected. This is highly important when it comes to passenger safety, but it also means a lot when it comes to making sure that all of the passengers are able to board the plane in a timely manner.

Industrial Purposes

X-rays are also used in certain industrial settings. For example, you have x-ray diffractometers, which can offer quality diffraction data and are used in a wide range of different settings, including universities and other research institutes. Not only this but they can also be used in industrial process control labs.

Examining Fossils

We naturally associate x-rays with bones, but often not those that are millions of years old. Used by geologists and archaeologists alike, extra facts and info can be gleaned by scanning anything that is dug up. When looked at by a specialist set of eyes, there is a lot that can be found out in terms of what animal the fossil belonged to, where it originated from, as well as a host of other interesting and useful pieces of information.

Inspecting Food Products

X-rays can also find themselves being used in the food industry in different ways. They are especially common in quality control departments, in which it is especially important to discover if there are any foreign objects in the food that needs to be removed. There is also new tech coming out all the time – particularly in the way of helping to decontaminate and cleanse food products in a way that allows them to be fit for consumption.

Dental Checks

While x-rays are commonly known about in hospitals, they are often used in the world of dentistry as well. They can give a good idea of any cavities or other issues that need to be dealt with.

These are just a few of the main uses of x-rays outside of a hospital environment. While this has been a technology that has been around for a long time, there are new and exciting ways of utilizing x-rays that are being found out about all the time.