To keep their solid gold Nobel Prizes away from the Nazis, James Franck and Max von Laue sent their medals to trusted colleague Niels Bohr. But when Germany invaded Denmark in 1940, the medals were no longer safe - so chemist George de Hevesy used his knowledge of chemistry to dissolve the gold into solution, hiding the medals in plain sight for 10 years. Hosted by: Hank Green SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at www.scishowtangents.org ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: Kevin Bealer, Jacob, Katie Marie Magnone, D.A. Noe, Charles Southerland, Eric Jensen, Christopher R Boucher, Alex Hackman, Matt Curls, Adam Brainard, Jeffrey McKishen, Scott Satovsky Jr, James Knight, Sam Buck, Chris Peters, Kevin Carpentier, Patrick D. Ashmore, Piya Shedden, Sam Lutfi, Charles George, Christoph Schwanke, Greg ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: instagram.com/thescishow ---------- Sources: books.google.ca/books?id=m-YF1glKWLoC&lpg=PA502&vq=266&pg=PA266#v=snippet&q=max&f=false www.nobelprize.org/prizes/about/the-nobel-medals-and-the-medal-for-the-prize-in-economic-sciences www.jstor.org/stable/25643495?seq=1 www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/physics-biographies/james-franck archive.org/stream/adventuresinradi01heve#page/27/mode/1up/search/medals www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1943/summary/ www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128034101000098 www.thoughtco.com/introduction-to-noble-metals-608444 iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1209/epl/i2005-10075-5 www.nature.com/articles/376238a0#citeas www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10163672 www.britannica.com/science/aqua-regia journals.iucr.org/a/issues/2008/01/00/sc5012/index.html edu.rsc.org/magnificent-molecules/aqua-regia/3007792.article chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry_Textbook_Maps/Supplemental_Modules_(Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Electronic_Structure_of_Atoms_and_Molecules/Electronic_Configurations/Hund%27s_Rules ehs.princeton.edu/book/export/html/508 chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Ancillary_Materials/Exemplars_and_Case_Studies/Exemplars/Culture/The_Nobel_Prize_and_Aqua_Regia#Precipitation phys.org/news/2016-02-sustainable-technique-recovers-gold-e-waste.html chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Inorganic_Chemistry/Map%3A_Inorganic_Chemistry_(Housecroft)/01%3A_Basic_concepts%3A_atoms/1.09%3A_The_Aufbau_Principle/1.9B%3A_Valence_and_Core_Electrons chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry_Textbook_Maps/Supplemental_Modules_(Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Equilibria/Dynamic_Equilibria/Reversible_vs._Irreversible_Reactions Image Sources: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aqua_regia_in_Davenport_Laboratories.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dissolution_of_gold_in_aqua_regia_(I).JPG commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dissolution_of_gold_in_aqua_regia_(II).JPG commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dissolution_of_gold_in_aqua_regia_(III).JPG commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-U0205-502,_Max_von_Laue.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Max_von_Laue_sign.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Franck_1925.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Niels_Bohr.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_de_Hevesy.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Golddust.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edelmetalle.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atomic-orbital-clouds_spdf_m0.png commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Electron_orbitals.svg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NatCopper.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silver_crystal.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gold-crystals.jpg commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aqua_regia.svg www.flickr.com/photos/27556454@N07/3751574032/in/photostream/ www.flickr.com/photos/27556454@N07/3751574162 www.flickr.com/photos/27556454@N07/3646116688