Ignorance and Re: NEWS: U.S. scientists win awards for battl

[KF Etzold <etzold@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I am a scientist by trade and I have been concerned by the anti-science
attitude which prevails
in general and by the ignorance and aversion of scientific topics by many
people in particular.
Unfortunately this ignorance extends even to the media and many journalists are
ignorant
of technology they are writing about.
An example is the article which Janet Paterson posted (thanks for your very
useful work).
The excerpt below says that a CAT scanner does not use "dangerous" X-rays.
Well it isn't so. The foundation of a CAT scanner is a narrow X-ray beam which
sent
through the body and made to scan. The change of the X-ray intensity at the
other side
of the body is then used to re-construct with a computer an image of the parts
scanned. In the early days the CAT scanner was used primarily to scan the brain
which could not be imaged satisfactorily using ordinary X-rays. The MRI
scanner works on a very different principle and it does not use X-rays, but then
its not a CAT scanner.

snip
Ledley's 1973 invention of the computed tomography scanner (CT) allowed
doctors to see inside the body for the first time without surgery or
dangerous X-rays.
snip

K-F Etzold cg Carline 72/4