X-Rays and early radiography by Rontgen (1895– 1928) For his discovery of X- Rays in 1895, Wilhelm Rontgen was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1901[1]. His reports included the first human radiograph of his wife, Anna Bertha's, hand. Other early radiographs emerging from a penchant for radiographing family and friends [2] are better, as are later radiographs of his buddy Albert von Kolliker's hand. Rontgen was a firm believer in open science and did not patent his discoveries, which he believed should be publicly available. Similarly, he gave his Nobel Prize money to science and later turned down a nobility offer. He was invited to join the Rontgen Society in the United Kingdom, which was the first medical X-Ray organization, but he rejected. Within a year following Rontgen's article, X-Rays were being used for diagnosis and therapy all around the world. While there were substantial benefits, there were also major risks to operators and patients. Intuitive protection measures began to be debated, albeit it took a long time for professional bodies to consider them, and much longer for them to become legally binding. This pattern is common; innovation and development come before formal norms and the law, and individuals with responsibility in these areas must be aware of this. In the year following Rontgen's discovery, approximately 1,100 publications on X- Rays were published due to the tremendous degree of curiosity in his invention.