
Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011) - ghosh
http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/10/03/140815154/dissolve-my-nobel-prize-fast-a-true-story
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emiliobumachar
Relevant smbc:

[http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-05-29](http://www.smbc-
comics.com/comic/2011-05-29)

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fivre
Reminds me vaguely of [https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/what-
it-s-...](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/what-it-s-like-to-
carry-your-nobel-prize-through-airport-security/)

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kafkaesq
_now that Denmark was suddenly part of the Reich_

Actually, rather than being annexed into the Reich itself, Denmark was made
into a protectorate (so the government and king were left in place -- but
instrumented to serve the Reich's purposes). Similar to the status of the
Netherlands and Norway.

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Demcox
I did not know this, so I guess it can qualify as news for me lol

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cyphar
Congratulations, you're one of the lucky 10,000 today!
[https://xkcd.com/1053/](https://xkcd.com/1053/)

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mikebay
It's sad that Obama have one for peace also. Wrong man & wrong agenda from day
one.

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nilved
Yes, that really tarnished the entire thing for a lot of people.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
It's a minor blemish compared to Henry Kissinger winning one.

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zorked
And this is how incredibly smart people can over-engineer a solution to a
simple problem...

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Practicality
What is the simple, appropriately engineered solution?

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edblarney
"What is the simple, appropriately engineered solution?"

To hide them.

The Germans are not going to spend a division of soldiers 4 years to dig up
all of Copenhagen.

There are innumerable places to hide them.

They also could have simply been deformed i.e. markings removed, then they're
just clumps of gold and evidence of nothing.

~~~
mikeash
This takes the tech community's propensity for Monday-morning quarterbacking
to a breathtaking new level. Yes, I'm sure you came up with a much better
solution in your sixty seconds of thinking in your comfortable chair than the
people on the spot, faced with literal Nazis, did at the time.

Just hide them! I wonder why Nobel laureate Niels Bohr and future Nobel
laureate George de Hevesy didn't think of that.

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edblarney
"Just hide them! I wonder why Nobel laureate Niels Bohr and future Nobel
laureate George de Hevesy didn't think of that."

Because they are geniuses and probably over-think everything.

It would take 20 minutes to find a spot to hide them, and they wouldn't be
recovered for 1000 years if people weren't the wiser. But it would be
pointless because you can remove the markings with any hard objects, basically
instantly.

The Nazis were not 'hunting' for this stuff, even if they were, it wouldn't be
worth any effort.

Step 1) take a hammer to them and remove the markings. Gold is soft and
malleable. Evidence = gone. 5 minutes.

If you're worried about having arbitrary bits of unmarked gold:

\+ Throw it in the garbage next door \+ Throw it in a bag in the harbour \+
Bury them in the lane or garden around the corner \+ Throw it in the sewer

It's just a couple of small bits of unmarked gold at that point. Wherever it's
found - or not - it's meaningless.

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pmoriarty
_" Because they are geniuses and probably over-think everything."_

There are some anecdotes to the contrary.

Enrico Fermi famously estimated the strength of the first atomic bomb by _"
dropping from about six feet small pieces of paper before, during and after
the passage of the blast wave."_

Richard Feynman tested the integrity of an o-ring which he concluded must have
caused the Challenger disaster by dropping the o-ring in to a glass of cold
water and noticing its deformation.

These are but the first two examples that spring to mind of simple solutions
found by "geniuses". I'd also categorize the way the gold medals were hidden
as another simple (and brilliant) solution. It would be interesting to read a
compilation of such anecdotes, if one exists.

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lordnacho
I find it a little bit hard to believe that finding a couple of medals would
be a priority as you're invading Denmark and Norway.

Sure, the Danes basically lay down and let the Germans march in, but really?
The Germans needed to get to Norway asap, and were probably more concerned
about that. Secure airfields, harbors, that kind of thing.

More likely the Danish cooperation policy helped later on, after the Germans
had established themselves. Basically, the Danish government decided to save
everyone a lot of trouble by cooperating with the invaders, a policy that is
much discussed in Danish politics. It came to an end in 1943 after the Germans
had done a number of hard to tolerate things.

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maxerickson
So the thing to do then is to track down the source quoted in the article
_When the Nazis ransacked Bohr 's institute_ and figure out if it is
exaggerated.

Your mere disbelief is rather weak in the face of statements like that one.

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lordnacho
Flipping through the book, it doesn't give much detail as to when exactly the
German stormtroopers came knocking.

The notes and errata at the end of the book don't seem to specify it either.

The point is the article makes it look like "oh crap the nazis have invaded,
let's dissolve these medals" rather than "they been here for a few weeks and
look like they're about to settle some bits of nazi business".

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maxerickson
His autobiography is not detailed:

[https://archive.org/stream/adventuresinradi01heve#page/27/mo...](https://archive.org/stream/adventuresinradi01heve#page/27/mode/1up)

I imagine they were thinking about hiding them pretty soon after the city fell
though. I agree that overdramatizing the timing is unfortunate.

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edblarney
There are many places they could have been hidden and never found.

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kbart
Agree. While it's a cool story to tell your grandchildren, burying medals (of
course, not on your own property) would be much faster solution.

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harveywi
I believe a there is a plot line in Pulp Fiction that touches on a solution
satisfying both constraints.

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pavel_lishin
The Nobel Prize medal appears to be about 2.5 inches wide, which would make it
immensely unsatisfying in at least one constraint.

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nilved
You'd need to start with smaller medal first.

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erelde
I like how the author of this piece talk about _Sir_ Martyn Poliakoff.

But the article predates his knighthood. (and presumably youtube fame)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyn_Poliakoff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyn_Poliakoff)

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dr_zoidberg
Actually, the piece barely mentions Poliakoff, and not even by name:

> As you can see in this video from the University of Nottingham, dissolving
> gold is a slow business. The narrator (who looks like he was cast by Mel
> Brooks, but is presumably, the real deal) explains that nitric acid loosens
> the gold atoms, after which hydrochloric acid moves in, using its chloride
> ions to surround and transform the gold.

I really don't see where you read that he's been knighted, other than
Wikipedia. From the videos YouTube page I didn't get his name either, and
there are no comments in the article.

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erelde
That I was able to know his name without even knowing what was the video (I
was behind a firewall which blocked youtube) should tell you that he has
become pretty famous in the "internet famous" sense. The description was a
giveaway and I remembered the video in question.

There's absolutely no need to be condescending... That description (which you
quoted) was genuinely funny to me because I know who he is.

~~~
dr_zoidberg
I wasn't being condescending, but you said:

> I like how the author of this piece talk about Sir Martyn Poliakoff.

> But the article predates his knighthood. (and presumably youtube fame)

And there were no mentions to Sir Poliakoff around, neither in the article nor
the video. Still, it was interesting reading about him, and he surely has
become an internet celebrity, but that doesn't change that your comment was
out of place to begin with.

