Triboluminescence and X -ray energies produced in unwinding office quality sticky tape.

It has been observed for decades that unpeeling a roll of Sticky tape (Scotch Tape in the US, Sellotape in the UK) in the dark results in a line of coloured thermoluminesence. Users of "Breath Right Nasal Strips" often see the production of a blue-white light at the junction of the strip and the backing, while peeling the backing away - simply because they often do this on going to bed when they have put out the light.

Seth J. Putterman and his colleagues in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, at the University of California have discovered that simply peeling ordinary sticky tape in a vacuum can generate enough X-rays to take an image — of one of the scientists' own fingers.

Simply ripping the tape from a stadard retail product at 3 centimetres per second generated X-ray bursts of 15 kiloelectronvolts (15 15-keV - each lasting one-billionth of a second, and containing over a million photons.

This curious phenomenom cannot be readily explained by current theories of tribology (the science of sliding surfaces) but speculation abounds at Planet Patel that if we can still find enexplained and novel sources of X - rays in such an apparently simple and serendipitous way. Then, hey- Black Holes ( which were identified by scientists to explain the X-rays seen in space) because only a black hole had enough energy to create an X-ray... may not exist ?

Otherwise, here on Planet Earth, brighter minds consider that portable X ray machines could be devised for making simple X rays in the field - for dental purposes, simple wounds which consume little energy, are lightweight and very low cost.