Today X rays serve as one of the more valuable servants of mankind, so essential a tool that much of modern medicine would be inconceivable without them. Yet less than 75 years ago their discovery was hailed as a near miracle by the scientific world.  This is the story of the man who achieved that "miracle"—Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, discoverer of X ray, first winner of the Noble Prize for Physics, and one of the great scientists of all time.

Handicapped by a lack of early specialized schooling in Holland, Rontgen nonetheless achieved a brilliant record as a university student in Switzerland. Soon after, he married the woman who was to be helpmate and inspiration all his life. In the years that followed, Rontgen became known as a teacher and a tireless researcher in many areas of physics.

In 1895 his accidental discovery of a short-wave ray revolutionized the scientific world and demonstrated the combination of scientific continuity and individual initiative behind all major breakthroughs.

In the final years of Rontgen's career, he was surrounded by global adulation accorded few scientists in history. Yet fame affected this extraordinary figure as little as former obscurity.  To the end of his days, he never ceased to devote his full energies to advancing the boundaries of human knowledge.

The X ray he discovered has been put to an astounding variety of uses in medicine, dentistry, laboratory research, industry, art—even astronomy. Rontgen's life combines the excitement of scientific discovery with a warm and wonderful love story.

From the book