In the heart of World War II, as the Nazis took control of Copenhagen, a peculiar situation took place at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, led by physicist Niels Bohr. Two Nobel laureates Max von Laue and James Franck, fearing the confiscation of their gold Nobel Prize medals by the Nazis, had sent their medals to Bohr for safekeeping.
On the day the Nazis arrived in Copenhagen, Hungarian chemist Georgy de Hevesy, who was working in Bohr’s lab, devised a plan to prevent the discovery of the medals. Initially considering burying the medals, they quickly dismissed the idea, fearing the thorough searches the Nazis would conduct. Instead, de Hevesy proposed a chemical solution — literally. Utilizing a mixture known as “aqua regia” (a blend of hydrochloric and nitric acids), he set about dissolving the gold medals. This concoction is one of the few substances capable of dissolving gold, a notably unreactive element. As the Nazis marched outside, de Hevesy dissolved the precious medals, reducing them to a colorless solution that eventually turned bright orange. The liquid containing the dissolved gold was then placed on a high shelf in the laboratory, where it remained unnoticed throughout the Nazi occupation.
Post World War II, upon returning to the laboratory after V-E Day, de Hevesy found the beaker undisturbed on the shelf. The gold was recovered from the solution and returned to the Nobel Prize committee, who then reminted the medals and presented them back to Laue and Franck in a ceremony in 1952.
Source: Fermat’s Library via LinkedIn
i feel cheated. the headline promised theoretical physics and the whole damn article was about chemistry 😠
It happened in Bohr’s lab, and the prizes were for physics. Sometimes ya gotta use the tools at your disposal. I posted it in both chemistry and physics communities because it involves both. And IMO both need way more content anyways.
I’m guessing they were joking in light of the controversy around the recently announced laureates for physics.
Maybe but the 😠 says otherwise
i was joking, but it was really simple joke, i have no idea what “controversy” is there around recent laureates. is that about the computer scientists getting the physics medal, or is there something else?
Here are some cool YouTube videos that chemically dissolve gold into solution:
I’m pretty sure Cody even mentioned this Nobel prize story in this video.
Here’s NileRed’s gold dissolving into solution video:
This is an incredibly cool tidbit of historical information. Thanks!
