And this is how incredibly smart people can over-engineer a solution to a simple problem...
The solution only has three ingredients - it's quite an elegant solution really
Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)
51–59 of 59 posts
Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
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.
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.
Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)
#53I did not know this, so I guess it can qualify as news for me lol
I thought I knew the story, but I didn't know that lives were at stake.
Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Is there some method of digging holes that I am not aware of that doesn't make it obvious there is a freshly dug hole? I mean, that spot in your neighbors yard that looks freshly dug would probably be a good place to look. (They were occupying the whole country)
If you want a digging to go unnoticed, you don't try to conceal the digging; you dig in a place where lots of other mundane diggings are already happening.
So, not going out in the middle of the night in ninja swit; but chearful gardening in the Church's front yard instead.
You can even put a heavy, thorny bush on top, so people will be too lazy to undig it by accident.
Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
"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. T…
"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.
Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article so specifically stated that he was concerned the Germans would dig up the place. Also consider that there might be others interested in a large gold disk
"The article so specifically stated that he was concerned the Germans would dig up the place" The Nazis would surely dig up his offices, but not Copenhagen. Moreover, the Nazis didn't even know that those things were there - and they don't really have much value at all to the Nazis. They're a couple of pieces of gold. The Nazis could do whatever they pleased with whomever they wanted - it's ridiculous to think that a…
"it's ridiculous to think that a couple of tiny pieces of gold would have changed their view on what to do with an acclaimed scientist. It's laughable."
Many people were killed on a whim by the Nazis, without much if any reason at all. Being a famous scientist wouldn't necessarily save you (and especially not your valuables, which were frequently confiscated).
Then there's a good chance that the grunts who searched these people wouldn't know who they were, wouldn't care, or even feel contempt or hatred for them because of who they were or what they said or did, and would in fact value gold far more than their lives.
Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)
#57Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The article so specifically stated that he was concerned the Germans would dig up the place" The Nazis would surely dig up his offices, but not Copenhagen. Moreover, the Nazis didn't even know that those things were there - and they don't really have much value at all to the Nazis. They're a couple of pieces of gold. The Nazis could do whatever they pleased with whomever they wanted - it's ridiculous to think that a…
"it's ridiculous to think that a couple of tiny pieces of gold would have changed their view on what to do with an acclaimed scientist. It's laughable." Many people were killed on a whim by the Nazis, without much if any reason at all. Being a famous scientist wouldn't necessarily save you (and especially not your valuables, which were frequently confiscated). Then there's a good chance that the grunts who searched t…
That's why hammering out the Nobel details and throwing them in the garbage, harbour, garden would have saved them entirely.
Random gold found in the harbour does not implicate Bohr.
Re: Dissolve My Nobel Prize, Fast (2011)
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there some method of digging holes that I am not aware of that doesn't make it obvious there is a freshly dug hole? I mean, that spot in your neighbors yard that looks freshly dug would probably be a good place to look. (They were occupying the whole country)
If you want a digging to go unnoticed, you don't try to conceal the digging; you dig in a place where lots of other mundane diggings are already happening. So, not going out in the middle of the night in ninja swit; but chearful gardening in the Church's front yard instead. You can even put a heavy, thorny bush on top, so people will be too lazy to undig it by accident.
I had missed the point about Nazis already going parading on the street. In that case, indoors methods of dealing with the medals provide a big advantage.
I'd probably have tried to melt them, though.