In a recent poll, in which 10,000 people got the chance to have their say, the X-ray machine was voted as the most important innovation of the century. More than 50,000 votes were recorded in the Science Museum of London inquiry, which saw X-rays defeat things like penicillin and steam engine. All of the ten objects came from areas of research such as science, engineering, technology and medicine, and the goal of the poll was to promote Science to the masses, and make it more interesting, the BBC News reports. Further details on all the items are available at the SML.

One of the main reasons why X-rays were considered to be so groundbreaking is the fact that, for the first time in millenia, doctors are able to look inside a patient without having to cut him open first. This represented the most massive advancement ever made in this field of research, the voters in the poll believed. In fact, all three positions on the poll are occupied by medical innovations. Following the X-ray machines are penicillin and the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. The latter discovery led to massive advancements in understanding how we evolved over millions of years.

“It's very inspirational to budding scientists to learn that an invention now declared the most important in world history could be pioneered by enthusiastic amateur inventors,” museum curator Katie Maggs says of the Reynolds machine. The instrument was constructed by a father-son team. They were so excited when hearing about the discovery of X-rays that they wanted to build a device that could use them at once. The machine can be seen today in the Making the Modern World Gallery at the SML.

“Any competition that pits the Apollo 10 spacecraft against Stephenson's rocket, and the DNA double helix against the Model T Ford, is bound to provide talking points a-plenty. The public's choice of the x-ray machine as the winner is testament to our insatiable curiosity to find out how things work,” the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Ben Bradshaw MP said of the results. Other inventions that made their way into the top ten include the Apollo 10 capsule, the V2 rocket engine, Stephenson's rocket, the Pilot ACE computer, the steam engine, the Model T Ford, and the telegraph.