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Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)

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11–20 of 59 posts

Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)

#11
post #4

this article is 5 years old! hackernews is for news, it is not a library.

Did you know about this before this was posted today? Even if you did, I'm sure several others got to know of this just today - which makes it worthwhile IMO.

yes this story is highly documented in histories of nuclear physics.

Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)

#15

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 ha…

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.

Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)

#17
post #13

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

What is the simple, appropriately engineered solution?

"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.

Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the simple, appropriately engineered solution?

"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.

Um, they were stealing everything not nailed down.

Your response reads like "now it's just worthless gold!"

Yes, they probably could have buried it in the woods somewhere, but that wouldn't have made for the cool story to tell the grandkids.

Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)

#20

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 ha…

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.

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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