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Dissolve My Nobel Prize! Fast! (A True Story)
- Nazi-occupied Copenhagen saw two Nobel prizes dissolved to hide them from looters in 1940.
- Georgy de Hevesy dissolved the medals in aqua regia to conceal them from German authorities.
- The dissolution turned the medals into a colorless solution before being stored on a lab shelf.
- After the war, the gold was precipitated and the medals were recast and re-presented in 1952.
- Bohr had sold his medal to fund Finnish relief before the events in Copenhagen.
- The medals’ survival story is linked to Sam Kean’s The Disappearing Spoon and Radiolab discussions.
- The incident demonstrates wartime measures to protect scientific honors from illicit seizure.
- The beaker of aqua regia remained undisturbed after a Nazi search of Bohr's institute.
- De Hevesy fled to Stockholm in 1943, returning after World War II to reclaim the medals.
- The medals’ re-coining and re-presentation occurred at ceremonies in 1952.
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