Radiation: An End to X-Ray Agony?

Ever since Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen discovered his wonderful X rays in 1895, physicists and physicians have been burning themselves, and sometimes patients as well, with accidental overdoses. And like the damage from exposure to more recently discovered sources of nuclear energy, X-ray burns have proved virtually incurable. Despite skin grafts, they often lead to progressive gangrene and successive amputations one famed "Xray martyr," Chicago's late Dr. Emil Grubbé, had no fewer than 93 operations before he died.

Last week a young American scientist began treatment at a Brussels hospital with full...