Published 5 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4602
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4602

News

X ray machine tops poll of most important scientific invention

Wendy Moore

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Voters have picked the x ray machine as the most important scientific invention, in a poll to celebrate the centenary of the Science Museum in London.Go


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Almost 50 000 people voted in the ballot to choose between 10 innovations selected by the museum’s curators. The x ray machine, which was built by the GP John Reynolds and his 15 year old son Russell only a year after the discovery of x rays, in 1895, emerged a clear winner with 9581 votes. But second and third places were also won by medical advances, with the discovery of penicillin polling 6825 votes and that of the double helix model of DNA securing 6725 votes, easily beating other contenders that included the Apollo 10 capsule and Stephenson’s Rocket.

The results were announced by Ben Bradshaw, secretary of state for culture, media, and sport, on Wednesday 4 November. Welcoming the outcome, Andy Adam, president . . . [Full text of this article]


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