Education Law

Student x-rayed classmate's stomach with scotch tape: Found lost marble

Could this headline really be true? Possibly. A graduate student at UCLA reported to the AP this week that scotch tape emits x-rays when peeled.

More than 50 years ago, some Russian scientists reported evidence of X-rays from peeling sticky tape off glass. But the new work demonstrates that you can get a lot of X-rays, a study co-author says.

"We were very surprised," said Juan Escobar. "The power you could get from just peeling tape was enormous."

Scotch tape is such a common tool in our everyday lives. Should our students stop using it in schools? Should we remove all of the scotch tape from our office desks and homes? Does this new advancement mean that those x-ray specs we've been hoping for since our childhood might finally be a reality? According to Escobar, the answer is no. The process only emits x-rays in an atmosphere without air, like a vacuum. Scotch tape is absolutely safe to continue using.

BoardBuzz found this research intriguing and is also very glad to know scotch tape is still safe to use, since we just taped the brochure for the upcoming T+L Conference to our wall!

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on October 23, 2008 (boomark / email).