Hiding a Nobel Prize From the Nazis

To keep their solid gold Nobel Prizes away from the Nazis, James Franck and Max von Laue sent their medals to trusted colleague Niels Bohr. But when Germany invaded Denmark in 1940, the medals were no longer safe - so chemist George de Hevesy used his knowledge of chemistry to dissolve the gold into solution, hiding the medals in plain sight for 10 years.

Hosted by: Hank Green

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[MrBlack]

I love how he used science to save part of scientific history.

[ianmatos]

I knew he was gonna say solution and it didn't matter

i still laughed

[ArborScientiae]

One of my favorite science history stories, told with puns that were pure gold!

[FCHenchy]

Oh...OH don't say it. Don't you DARE say-

"solution"

Arrrrgh!

[stuck_around]

thought he was gonna say they had a problem and found a way to disSOLVE it

[PocketBrain]

Thank you for covering this! It's one of my favorite stories of all time. That George de Hevesy later won his own Nobel Prize is simply icing on the cake.

[IJustWantToUseMyName]

It’s like watching a really intelligent episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle: good guys, bad guys, clever subterfuge, painful pun at the end.

[ShannaMaeCoaching]

Hank looks way to happy with himself when he says that last pun😂

[theCodyReeder]

Next time call me before talking about chemistry involving Nobel metals! 😄

[elfarlaur]

5:22 you can see in the way Hank's lip is wavering that he's SO excited to say the punchline but is forcing himself to wait for the perfect moment.

[brandensattler]

I love how you combined history and science. This will be an interesting episode. 😊

[AnimilesYT]

What I maybe love most is how the Nobel foundation took the gold and turned it back into a medal. They're able to understand the situation and what he has done to it. Most people wouldn't, but they would. And I love how they accepted the request

[SunriseFireberry]

"He found a solution."
--SciShow Jul. 1/20

[dominic.h.]

Normal people: just send the medal when it's safe for us to have it.
Scientists: let's completely transform it into a liquid and store it that way for 10 years, then reverse the reaction, send the clump of gold back, and cast the medal again.

[ShirinRose]

I worked with aqua regia a lot during my PhD on gold nanoparticles, and I absolutely love this story. Thank you for including some more complex Chemistry in a SciShow video!

[charlesphilips]

Crash Course History of Science was one of my favourite, among the series.

This episode reminded me of how much I loved the series.

[MusicIan]

"He was presented with a problem... And you could say... He found a -- " I gonna have to cut you off right there.

[maxthrust]

“It’s Germany in the 1930’s”
Or at least it feels like it :(

[Kenjiro]

Isaac Asimov published a huge book of facts when I was a kid. I read that book during a summer in junior high school and this story was one of the myriad facts in it. I am so glad the story is true as it has remained in my memory for all these years. Thank you for confirming a favorite childhood memory snippet. 😁👍

[ToiletPaperCuts]

After that pun, my eyes rolled so far into my skull that I became a human slot machine and by the time my eyes aligned and faced forward again, I opened my mouth, but instead of coins, what poured out was two chuckles.