While stumbling around - went to slashdot to check on Comcast, saw article about wedding rings and picking iridium because it would not dissolve in aqua regia, forced to look up
aqua regia due to mediocre high school science classes.
Found this in the wiki entry for
aqua regia:
Quote:
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When Germany invaded Denmark in World War II, the Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy dissolved the gold Nobel Prizes of Max von Laue and James Franck into aqua regia to prevent the Nazis from stealing them. He placed the resulting solution on a shelf in his laboratory at the Niels Bohr Institute. It was subsequently ignored by the Nazis who thought the jar—one of perhaps hundreds on the shelving—contained common chemicals. After the war, de Hevesy returned to find the solution undisturbed and precipitated the gold out of the acid. The gold was returned to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Foundation who recast and presented the medals to Laue and Franck
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The complete story is
here.
The moral of the story is noone can thumb their nose at authority better than a geek.
I should qualify that - noone can thumb their nose at authority
and survive the experience better than a geek.
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