Some Words About the History of Computed Tomography

Abstract

We could limit the story of the beginnings of computed tomography to mentioning Allan MacLeod Cormack and Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield, the authors of this groundbreaking invention, and to placing their achievements on a timeline, from Cormack’s theoretical idea in the late 1950s to Hounsfield’s development of a practical device in the late 1960s. However, perhaps we should broaden our horizons and look back through the centuries to obtain a more complete view of the development of human thought and aspirations, which led to the invention of a device without which it would be difficult to imagine contemporary medicine.