nifty historical trivia

[rmd]

From the wikipaedia article on Aqua Regia:

When Germany invaded Denmark in World War II, the Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy dissolved the gold Nobel Prizes of the German physicists Max von Laue and James Franck in aqua regia to prevent the Nazis from confiscating them. The German government had prohibited Germans from accepting or keeping any Nobel Prize after the jailed peace activist Carl von Ossietzky had received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1935. De Hevesy placed the resulting solution on a shelf in his laboratory at the Niels Bohr Institute. It was subsequently ignored by the Nazis who thought the jar—one of perhaps hundreds on the shelving—contained common chemicals. After the war, de Hevesy returned to find the solution undisturbed and precipitated the gold out of the acid. The gold was returned to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Foundation who recast the medals and again presented them to Laue and Franck.

i'm apparently all kinds of posty today. *shrug*

Comments

[muffyjo]

Ok, THAT is cool! That's using the superpowers of science for good!

As for the super posty, it's nice hearing from you. ;)

[i-leonardo.livejournal.com]

WHOA !
so cool !

[johnromkey.livejournal.com]

That's a really cool story!

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

So the Nobel Prize committee has a history of pissing of governments by giving the Peace Prize to jailed peace activists?

Apparently China is now demanding that Western governments boycott this year's award ceremony because the Peace Prize was awarded to a "criminal".

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

That is made of awesome.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

That's because China is a repressive git with a big stick up its ass....

[i-leonardo.livejournal.com]

that excerpt made me want to read the wikipedia entry for Max von Laue; really awesome dude !

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I've always liked this bit of applied science. :)

Much with the cool

[drwex]

so often we read about science being made to serve political purposes. Nice to see the shoe on the other foot for a change.