Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles

In the last decade of the 20th Century the Sloan Foundation awarded grants to authors to research and write about technology that had a significant impact on 20th Century life. The grants covered everything except publication - once an author had finished it was up to them to find a publisher. Of those books written, sixteen found a publisher. All of the books in the series are a great read and I would recommend the series to anyone interested in the history of technology.
Two of the books, Naked to the Bone and Dream Reaper, approach their subject in a manner different from the rest of the series - what they offer are dual histories. In the case of Naked to the Bone the author intertwines the history of medical imaging with a history/discussion of the impact of that technology on the world of art and culture.
The book is divided into the X-ray era (end of the 19th Century to the end of World War II) and the post war era of competing imaging technologies (CT, MRI, PET, etc). Kevles begins with Rontgen and his X-ray picture of his wife's hand. She describes the media frenzy and the instant celebrity status accorded Rontgen when his picture was published on the front page of Neue Freie Presse. She traces the development and refinement of the method as a technology and as an instrument of cultural change.
The discussion of the rise of other imaging methods after WWII follows the same format as the first part of the book. The descriptions of the technical aspects of the various imaging methods are clear and easy to understand. In addition to the overarching theme of technological development and societal impact, Kevles takes an occasional time out to provide the reader with interesting, yet pertinent, bits of historical trivia - one of my favorites - the connection between the development of CT scanners and the rock group The Beatles. Naked to the Bone is a well written, informative, history of technology.… (meer)