X-rays 'top scientific invention'

The public has voted the X-ray machine as the best invention, ahead of the Apollo 10 space capsule and Stephenson's Rocket.

Out of nearly 50,000 votes cast, one in five people named it for having made the greatest impact on the past, present and future.

Ten of the most significant objects in science, engineering, technology and medicine were selected for the vote.

Information on all the items is found at the Science Museum in London.

The first three positions were filled by medical inventions or discoveries, the X-ray machine being followed by the discoveries of penicillin and the DNA double helix structure.

X-rays provided the first possibility of looking inside someone's body without cutting them open - a massive medical advance.