How a chemist dissolved two Nobel Prizes to hide them from the Nazis
In short: In 1940, as Nazi troops marched through Copenhagen, two gold Nobel medals were sitting in a physics institute like death warrants. To save the prizes from being seized, a chemist had to perform a desperate act of chemistry to make the heavy, inscribed gold vanish.
When Germany invaded Denmark in 1940, physicist Niels Bohr faced a crisis. Two Nobel Prize medals—one belonging to Max von Laue, who won the 1914 Prize for Physics, and the other to James Franck, the 1925 winner—were stored at Bohr's Institute of Theoretical Physics. The medals were made of 23-karat gold, making them heavy, shiny, and clearly inscribed with the laureates' names. With the Nazis declaring that no gold could leave Germany, these medals were essentially evidence of a capital offense. The prizes were awarded to Max von Laue and James Franck. These specific laureates had sent their awards to Bohr for safekeeping.
The situation was particularly perilous because Bohr's institute had long been a sanctuary for Jewish scientists, making it a known target for the Reich. While Bohr feared that burying the medals in the garden would lead to them being unearthed by German searches, Hungarian chemist Georgy de Hevesy proposed a more radical solution. He decided to use chemistry to make the physical objects disappear entirely.
By employing aqua regia, a powerful chemical emulsifier composed of one part nitric acid and three parts hydrochloric acid, de Hevesy managed to dissolve the stable gold atoms. The process involves nitric acid loosening the gold atoms, allowing chloride ions from the hydrochloric acid to surround and transform them. This method allowed the two hulking gold medals to be hidden in plain sight as a liquid solution for 10 years, protecting them from the invading forces. This chemical mixture is known as aqua regia. The reaction is notoriously slow, making the process an excruciating afternoon for the chemist.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Hiding a Nobel Prize From the Nazis
- Also: Dissolve My Nobel Prize! Fast! (A True Story)
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