9. X-Ray
Can you imagine what we’d do without X Rays?! It would be a total nightmare as far as medical incidents go—broken bones would be a total disaster. In 1895 the x-ray was accidentally discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen when he was doing an experiment with cathode rays. The scientist noticed that even though there was a blockade preventing any light from the rays reaching a piece of cardboard across the room, it was fluorescent and lit up. The only explanation is that the light rays were traveling through the blockade and the technology discovered that day was eventually developed into modern x-ray machines.