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.
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
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.
It was clearly too difficult to get it to a safe country. Copenhagen is very close to neutral Sweden, so if it had been possible to safely smuggle them out of Denmark they'd probably have done so. It sounds like they had very little option - the sound of jackboots going down your street would probably have made the decision for them.
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.
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!
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. 😁👍
Seeing aqua regia in volumetric flasks made me shout "AH NO" in the middle of my empty apartment. You can take the chemist out of lab but you can't take the best lab practices out of the chemist
Hmm, what's the problem with aqua regia in a volumetric flask? Or am I missing half of a pun where the part I do get is "H NO"? Edit: looked it up... it's about volumetric flask quality classes, isn't it? God damn it, you got me :')
What an interesting and beautiful story. It’s one of the rare things that make us human. Our knowledge and our empathy towards others. This is one I’m going to remember and tell to my daughter.
I feel like nobel winners are united under an organization, and they would help each other when needa arise, like a very cool club with a really hard requirement to be part of
YES! I already knew about this story, really glad you covered it. I work it into my unit on natural resources - it's a great example of how science can be very important in history.
And the bottle in which they stored the solution was just an ordinary dust gathering reagent bottle labeled either “nitric acid” or “hydrochloric acid” (I’m not sure which). It would fool a soldier who wasn’t a chemist.
I saw the comments about the "solution" pun before starting the video and based on the title of the video I was concerned that Hank made a "final solution" joke
The last bit about remaking the medals with the same gold is BS btw. He apparently misplaced the solution in the chaos of war. They just used different gold. Takes the shine off of the story a bit though.
Niels Bohr also reportedly successfully hid a bottle of heavy water in his fridge calling it beer. And unfortunately while escaping took away an actual bottle of beer instead that of the heavy water.
I knew by his pacing that he was going to make a pun, and my brain already finished the sentence with “solution”, but I seriously didn’t get it until he dropped it. I guess it took delivery got me. Lolz.
To be accurate James Franck and Max von Laue now shared the 2 original medals/metals. Niels Bohr would have had to use 2 separate flasks if each was to get only their own medal back. This, of course, makes them the coolest 2 Nobel Prizes ever awarded.
i have a question: does this mean that the solution containing the gold was unusually heavy because of the gold? like one medal is heavy about 200 gramms, so how much "royal water" Hevesy needed to disolve them?
@cak01vej And half a liter of clear liquid in glass doesn't look all that suspicious sitting on a shelf, so it's no wonder nobody thought to check it for gold solution.
Can you explain the theory looking at gravity as an emergent phenomenon instead of a fundamental force? How does it negate the need for dark matter and dark energy, and how plausible is it thought to be at this time?
I love how he used science to save part of scientific history.
It was such a strange convoluted thing to do, but, that’s history.
He didn’t just save that gold, he saved the two scientist’s lives
“I hid your Nobel prize”
Plonks lump of gold in hand
“Did you tho”
That in itself should be worthy of another Nobel.
@@ChrisDink "I hid your nobel prize"
*Slams jug of piss down on table.*
I knew he was gonna say solution and it didn't matter
i still laughed
you could say that joke had a solid base
Like my chemistry teacher used to say "You're either part of the solution or part of the precipitate"
That just made it satisfying.
and that smile just made it all the better.
like "you know it's coming. I know it's coming. but here it is anyway...ready?
...
SOLUTION!"
I feel like hank himself gave this comment a heart
Oh...OH don't say it. Don't you DARE say-
"solution"
Arrrrgh!
I am a chemist, In my language we call it that way, how do you call it in yours? Dissolution? Mix?
Gold in acid?
The perfect pun
This entire episode exists entirely for the pun. And I love it.
Frank Henchy you know what he is like 😭😭😂
@@davidrice4873 Alcohol's a solution, but, not the one needed in this case.
Next time call me before talking about chemistry involving Nobel metals! 😄
Very true, Cody
I wondered if you would comment )
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
And mushrooms, don't forget the mushrooms.
I'm so used to your pronunciation of aqua regia, it sounded weird when Hank said it.
One of my favorite science history stories, told with puns that were pure gold!
It’s like watching a really intelligent episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle: good guys, bad guys, clever subterfuge, painful pun at the end.
thought he was gonna say they had a problem and found a way to disSOLVE it
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.
He was trying not to laugh! obviously.
haha
Hank looks way to happy with himself when he says that last pun😂
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.
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
They probably got a good chuckle out of it.
I disagree. I think most people are good enough to see the extenuating circumstances.
So awesome!!
He probably could have won a peace prize for himself with that, honestly
Apologies - I misread your comment, so I deleted earlier response.
I love how you combined history and science. This will be an interesting episode. 😊
It was, entertaining and captivating.
+
indeed 💕
"He found a solution."
--SciShow Jul. 1/20
love it 🤣
That was a...
...Solid Gold Pun!😁😄
I hate you all for that pun...
It was a nice one, but I hate it anyway
1/20 is also the score for that pun
Actually it’s July 2nd
thats a freaking awesome story
"He was presented with a problem... And you could say... He found a -- " I gonna have to cut you off right there.
"solution"
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.
They already had the medals. If they had received the nobel prices that year, they would have probably waited until the war was over to send them out.
Back then people's mindset was completely different
It was clearly too difficult to get it to a safe country.
Copenhagen is very close to neutral Sweden, so if it had been possible to safely smuggle them out of Denmark they'd probably have done so.
It sounds like they had very little option - the sound of jackboots going down your street would probably have made the decision for them.
@Dwarf From The North What?
@Dwarf From The North The German invasion and take-over of Denmark was a thing of *hours* from start to Danish surrender (8:34 in the morning)
The problem had some unique elements and required a compounding solution.
Did you just give a sophisticated pun?
@@mongmanmarkyt2897 It required a "final solution."
Crash Course History of Science was one of my favourite, among the series.
This episode reminded me of how much I loved the series.
“It’s Germany in the 1930’s”
Or at least it feels like it :(
Real Weimar Republic 1932 hours
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.
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!
The moment he mentioned dissolving gold I knew it was going to be aqua regia.
Come for the science, stay for the puns!
Seen on a T-shirt: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
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. 😁👍
5:20 My heart is heavy that you cut away from this pun so fast. That beautiful slow smirk deserved a video to itself :'(
Seeing aqua regia in volumetric flasks made me shout "AH NO" in the middle of my empty apartment. You can take the chemist out of lab but you can't take the best lab practices out of the chemist
Hmm, what's the problem with aqua regia in a volumetric flask? Or am I missing half of a pun where the part I do get is "H NO"?
Edit: looked it up... it's about volumetric flask quality classes, isn't it? God damn it, you got me :')
Thanks Cody’s Lab for teaching us about this process in his precious metal extraction videos
We need more of this kinda episodes
"We have to hide our gold!"
"I know the solution"
Glad to see you call them the bad guys. Some these days don't realise this.
Huge Fan Scishow!!! Keep up y'all's great work
What an interesting and beautiful story. It’s one of the rare things that make us human. Our knowledge and our empathy towards others. This is one I’m going to remember and tell to my daughter.
I feel like nobel winners are united under an organization, and they would help each other when needa arise, like a very cool club with a really hard requirement to be part of
I really think Hank is trying to get a reaction out of me with all these dumb puns.
Very good. One of the best SciShow videos that I have seen.
Thank you Hank and SciShow team, this truly is noble work
Ok but has he tried simply burying it really deep?
He was a chemist, not a geologist.
@@theronerdithas2944 Right, and as a chemist, where would be the fun in that?
How is this not a movie, I'd love to see this story told on the big screen
I died as much from the face you made when you said that last pun as from the pun itself
Guess you could say I dissolved in giggles
Never try to outsmart a scientist, because he's already outsmarted you just by existing... :P
Imagine if they’d spilled it
Okay that pun was almost worthy of a Dear Hank and John intro.
urea, if anyone asks how the gold is reduced from the _solution._
Sounds like a piss-poor solution
You mean he pissed into it and gold came out? 😁
Nope...urea just uses up all the free nitric acid in solution. You use sodium metabisulfite to precipitate out the gold.
@@ursamines7643 So if you only use pee expecting gold, urine trouble.
This thread is painful
You’d think they’d want the Nobel prize winners rather than the actual prizes
This is a perfect example of how brilliant and out-of-the box you have to think to get a Nobel prize.
That little lip twitch before the pun... You could tell he was satisfied with that one.
This... I told myself don’t cry. And I’m CRYING my eyes out. So beautiful
I got off the bus @ "He wanted to dissolve them" and back on @ "Hidden in plane sight" still a fun ride!
That last pun put a smile on my face. I feel like a nerd for finding that funny, and I'm okay with that. You guys are awesome.
Ok... I have to be honest: THAT pun was spot-on! :)
YES! I already knew about this story, really glad you covered it. I work it into my unit on natural resources - it's a great example of how science can be very important in history.
What an incredible story! Thanks for sharing!
He kind of used the organized crime version of the word "hide" 🧪⚗
Huh you're right he basically laundered the medals
And the bottle in which they stored the solution was just an ordinary dust gathering reagent bottle labeled either “nitric acid” or “hydrochloric acid” (I’m not sure which). It would fool a soldier who wasn’t a chemist.
It takes real mettle to meddle with gold metal like that.
I saw the comments about the "solution" pun before starting the video and based on the title of the video I was concerned that Hank made a "final solution" joke
that "solution" joke at the end, good stuff :D
You wrote this entire video script JUST to say that joke on the internet. I am proud of you, Hank. Well done.
I would like to think this is when the term "solution" was invented.
This is the best video about chemical equilibrium ever
That story deserves a movie.
That.. was an awesome story. Ty hank!
“He found a solution!” 👏👏👏
Fascinating historical story!
"You could say he found...a solution."
I feel like there is a very long Norm Macdonald joke hiding in this story.
Oh god that last pun, I literally groaned out loud.
2:40 Me who has watched all the Cody's Lab videos on gold extraction. Aqua Regia time?.... Its Aqua Regia time!
That was a brilliant story - thanks!
The last bit about remaking the medals with the same gold is BS btw. He apparently misplaced the solution in the chaos of war. They just used different gold. Takes the shine off of the story a bit though.
Hank's enjoyment with the solution pun was evident.
Just glad Franck got his Nobel prize back, you had me worried there when you confirmed it was fully dissolved
We use aqua regia all the time to clean crucibles in the ceramics lab i work in, it'll clean up most things leaving the alumina crucible behind
I knew about agua regia but this is the first time I have seen its application in real life. That was an awesome story. Thanks scishow.
Macgyver : "Here's a good Idea. These guys : "Hold my beer"!!
That last pun was horrible, just horrible! And I love you for it.
Need more episodes which combines history and science.
Niels Bohr also reportedly successfully hid a bottle of heavy water in his fridge calling it beer. And unfortunately while escaping took away an actual bottle of beer instead that of the heavy water.
That pun wasn’t just toxic, it was caustic...
Always interesting, thank you.
Why strikes me is these guys, who were all known to each other, in a way ended up sharing the medals, unless they were all in seperate containers.
Neat story! Thanks for uploading!
Best. Pun. Ever!
I spoke it along with Hank and it was still funny.
I heard a case involving tetrachloroaurate when I was a rural juror.
5:23 okay, that pun was actually pretty funny.
Awesome story and lesson!!
This was also featured in an episode of Super Science Friends
Amazing! Loved this
Wow, that eye twitch when he said the pun at the end. 😂
This episode was worth it just for the pun!
I knew by his pacing that he was going to make a pun, and my brain already finished the sentence with “solution”, but I seriously didn’t get it until he dropped it. I guess it took delivery got me. Lolz.
5:22... This pun is *gold!* 😂
You would think there would be easier solutions for hiding them.
Getting flashbacks to A level chemistry 😰
To be accurate James Franck and Max von Laue now shared the 2 original medals/metals. Niels Bohr would have had to use 2 separate flasks if each was to get only their own medal back.
This, of course, makes them the coolest 2 Nobel Prizes ever awarded.
Joke at the end is great!
precipitating gold from aqua regia is well known now, I don't know why you guys made it sound like a mastery
That pun was sheer gold!
i have a question: does this mean that the solution containing the gold was unusually heavy because of the gold? like one medal is heavy about 200 gramms, so how much "royal water" Hevesy needed to disolve them?
@cak01vej And half a liter of clear liquid in glass doesn't look all that suspicious sitting on a shelf, so it's no wonder nobody thought to check it for gold solution.
Can you explain the theory looking at gravity as an emergent phenomenon instead of a fundamental force? How does it negate the need for dark matter and dark energy, and how plausible is it thought to be at this time?
Scishow's science puns are becoming gold.
That final pun is so good