When the Nazis invaded Copenhagen in 1940 , physicist Niels Bohr was in possession of two Nobel Prize medals . But they were not his palm . The first go to Max von Laue , winner of the 1914 Prize for physics , the 2nd to James Franck , the purgative success in 1925 .
Not require to attract unwanted care to themselves , each had sent his medal to Bohr ’s lab in Copenhagen for safekeeping . But with nazi marching through the streets of the city , the laurel wreath now posed a particularly serious threat to Bohr . NPR ’s Robert Krulwich writes :
Inconveniently , [ these laurel wreath were ] now sit around in Bohr ’s building , distinctly inscribed “ Von Laue” … and “ Franck ” — like two end warrants . Bohr ’s institute had attracted and protect Jewish scientists for years . The Nazis knew that , and Niels Bohr knew ( now that Denmark was suddenly part of the Reich ) that he was a target . He had no approximation what to do .
On the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. the Nazis came to Copenhagen , a Hungarian chemist advert Georgy de Hevesy ( he would one twenty-four hour period bring home the bacon a Nobel of his own ) was working in Bohr ’s lab . He indite later , “ I advise that we should bury the medal(s ) , ” but Bohr thought no , the Germans would dig up the grounds , the garden , search everywhere in the building . Too grave .
So Hevesy ’s thought turn to chemistry . peradventure he could make the medallion disappear . He took the first one , he says , and “ I decided to thaw it . While the invading forces demonstrate in the streets of Copenhagen , I was busybodied dissolving Laue ’s and also James Franck ’s medals . ”
It was a painstakingly slow process ( Au is a notoriously unchanging chemical element ) , but Hevesy managed to pull it off ; when the Nazis loot Bohr ’s institute , they found no trace of the medals .
Or rather , they never find them . The gold from the two medals had been unfreeze into a smart orange tree , but otherwise unassuming , liquid state . A liquid that the Nazis left unaffected . A liquid that Hevesey later extracted the gold from and send off back to the Nobel Foundation to have reforge into two sword - spanking - new medal .
The lesson of the story ? Science win , squawk .
Check out the full story on how Hevesy saved the solar day , including a telecasting on how to dissolve gold , over atNPR
Top image by Benjamin Arthur via NPR
ChemistrynaziPhysicsScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the good tech , science , and culture news in your inbox day by day .
News from the time to come , delivered to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
