During the entire period of the second world war, Mr Nicholas Baker kept a flask in his lab containing a special liquid. Who was Nicholas Baker, what was this liquid, and who did it belong to?

Feel free to Google, the person who correctly answers the three questions correctly can post a question of their own.

Carmen_Sandiego said:

During the entire period of the second world war, Mr Nicholas Baker kept a flask in his lab containing a special liquid. Who was Nicholas Baker, what was this liquid, and who did it belong to?

Feel free to Google, the person who correctly answers the three questions correctly can post a question of their own.

No idea, my guess would be a chemical agent, possibly anthrax.

neils bohr.

http://electroncafe.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/nobel-prize-week-niels-bohr/

Boris said:

neils bohr.

One out of three. :)

Inconveniently, that evidence was now sitting in Bohr’s building, clearly inscribed “Von Laue” (for Max von Laue, winner of the 1914 Prize for Physics) and “Franck” (for James Franck, the physics winner in 1925) — like two death warrants. Bohr’s institute had attracted and protected Jewish scientists for years. The Nazis knew that, and Niels Bohr knew (now that Denmark was suddenly part of the Reich) that he was a target. He had no idea what to do.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/10/03/140815154/dissolve-my-nobel-prize-fast-a-true-story

I spent a good part of this morning arguing with some fundies who wouldn’t accept that a circle is flat.

No really.

sorry pete i don’t know the answer to that.

Skeptic Pete said:

I spent a good part of this morning arguing with some fundies who wouldn’t accept that a circle is flat.

No really.

Were they confusing a circle with a sphere?

Boris said:

http://electroncafe.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/nobel-prize-week-niels-bohr/

So to answer the question,

Mr Nicholas Baker was Niels Bohr’s code name when working at Los Alamos. His lab contained two the Nobel prize medallions of Max von Laue and James Franck dissolved into a flask of nitric and hydrochloric acid.

Boris… over to you.

Divine Angel said:

Were they confusing a circle with a sphere?

Quite possibly. They’re known to confuse fairy tales with cosmology.

Divine Angel said:

Skeptic Pete said:

I spent a good part of this morning arguing with some fundies who wouldn’t accept that a circle is flat.

No really.

Were they confusing a circle with a sphere?

yes, they were

Carmen_Sandiego said:

the Nobel prize medallions of Max von Laue and James Franck dissolved into a flask of nitric and hydrochloric acid.

…Why would you do something like that?

Divine Angel said:

Skeptic Pete said:

I spent a good part of this morning arguing with some fundies who wouldn’t accept that a circle is flat.

No really.

Were they confusing a circle with a sphere?

And were they in the right thread?

This is the personal message I received this morning DA…….

A circle is round you dummy. It is not flat. What is wrong with you?
The World is not flat.
You are a God hater. Quit serving satan you cruel mean Souyl

And yes, she was an adult, and she deleted every one of her posts on Ray Comfort’s Facebook page shortly after.

…and some errata to the story. Laura Fermi (Enrico’s wife) book “Atoms in the family – my life with Enrico Fermi” incorrectly states that the dissolved medallion belonged to Niels himself.

he did it to protect the two winners from the nazis, the medals had their names on them, after the war the got the gold out of solution and remade the medals. that is the kind of esoteric shit scientists do.

Sorry about messin up the thread

Angus Prune said:

Carmen_Sandiego said:

the Nobel prize medallions of Max von Laue and James Franck dissolved into a flask of nitric and hydrochloric acid.

…Why would you do something like that?

You know what it’s like after you have a few beers…

Full story here:
http://io9.com/5847175/how-to-disappear-two-nobel-prize-medals-and-how-to-bring-them-back

It had the makings of being a good Pop Science Quiz thread until Peat trashed it with his religion obsession.

Interesting. Did you tell her to cut a circle out of paper and lay it on her desk? Or maybe she deleted her posts after realising she was wrong.

“…he did it to protect the two winners from the nazis, the medals had their names on them..”

The Nobel committee had kept the winners’ names a secret somehow?

read my link capt. and CS too.

captain_spalding said:

“…he did it to protect the two winners from the nazis, the medals had their names on them..”

The Nobel committee had kept the winners’ names a secret somehow?

No, the problem was the fact the winners had sent the gold to the institute for safe keeping.

It’s 1940. The Nazis have taken Copenhagen. They are literally marching through the streets, and physicist Niels Bohr has just hours, maybe minutes, to make two Nobel Prize medals disappear.

These medals are made of 23-karat gold. They are heavy to handle, and being shiny and inscribed, they are noticeable. The Nazis have declared no gold shall leave Germany, but two Nobel laureates, one of Jewish descent, the other an opponent of the National Socialists, have quietly sent their medals to Bohr’s Institute of Theoretical Physics, for protection. Their act is probably a capital offense — if the Gestapo can find the evidence.

Inconveniently, that evidence was now sitting in Bohr’s building, clearly inscribed “Von Laue” (for Max von Laue, winner of the 1914 Prize for Physics) and “Franck” (for James Franck, the physics winner in 1925) — like two death warrants.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/10/03/140815154/dissolve-my-nobel-prize-fast-a-true-story

Boris said:

read my link capt. and CS too.

I came in late. That entitles me to make half-informed smart-arse comments without reference to anything which would demonstrate that i’m behaving like the ill-informed ass that i am.

I’d wager that it’s enshrined in the Constitution. Somewhere.

“ Their act is probably a capital offense — if the Gestapo can find the evidence.

Inconveniently, that evidence was now sitting in Bohr’s building, clearly inscribed “Von Laue” (for Max von Laue, winner of the 1914 Prize for Physics) and “Franck” (for James Franck, the physics winner in 1925) — like two death warrants.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/10/03/140815154/dissolve-my-nobel-prize-fast-a-true-story”

Ref. my post ID: 454939

Richard Feynman has the number 6 associated with him. what is the explanation behind this number?

Boris said:

Richard Feynman has the number 6 associated with him. what is the explanation behind this number?

He was made of carbon (plus some other stuff), and carbon has an atomic number of 6.

good answer but not the one i’m after.

It was easy…

poikilotherm said:

It was easy…

d’oh, I should have thought of that.

But maybe it was not so easy.

so what is the answer poik?

The Feynman point is a sequence of six 9s that begins at the 762nd decimal place of the decimal representation of π. It is named after physicist Richard Feynman, who once stated during a lecture he would like to memorize the digits of π until that point, so he could recite them and quip “nine nine nine nine nine nine and so on”, suggesting, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, that π is rational

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_point

Boris said:

so what is the answer poik?

Has he got to spell out all the pieces?

Witty Rejoinder said:

The Feynman point is a sequence of six 9s that begins at the 762nd decimal place of the decimal representation of π. It is named after physicist Richard Feynman, who once stated during a lecture he would like to memorize the digits of π until that point, so he could recite them and quip “nine nine nine nine nine nine and so on”, suggesting, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, that π is rational

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_point

Maybe we need to get six different ways in which the number 6 is associated with Feynman.

Two to go.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

The Feynman point is a sequence of six 9s that begins at the 762nd decimal place of the decimal representation of π. It is named after physicist Richard Feynman, who once stated during a lecture he would like to memorize the digits of π until that point, so he could recite them and quip “nine nine nine nine nine nine and so on”, suggesting, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, that π is rational

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_point

Maybe we need to get six different ways in which the number 6 is associated with Feynman.

Two to go.

lol.

nice answer so far but no prize yet.

a clue.

mathematician pig.

Boris said:

a clue.

mathematician pig.

Doesn’t get me anywhere.

Except that apparently some people say he was a sixist pig.

i’ll put the answer in the next post.

4+2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdős–Bacon_number

sorry alex, it is actually 3+3.

;-)

33 isn’t the answer to LTUAE.

Boris said:

sorry alex, it is actually 3+3.

;-)

So, what is the answer?

Michael V said:

Boris said:

sorry alex, it is actually 3+3.

;-)

So, what is the answer?

Highlight his ‘empty’ post.

OCDC said:

Michael V said:

Boris said:

sorry alex, it is actually 3+3.

;-)

So, what is the answer?

Highlight his ‘empty’ post.

Ah.

Cheers

Had to make phone calls and cook dinner. Was away for a while…

Next quiz:

When and by whom was this written?

“It’s the cleverest notion I ever struck. It’s a pocket wireless telephone. They are to be made only by the Government. Every instrument is tuned to respond to a certain number of vibrations and to no other number. The Government issues a book of the names of subscribers, and supplies each subscriber with an apparatus. You can, if you like, carry with you a short list of the people with whom you mostly converse. You also carry the apparatus. Then, if you are out of doors or travelling, or whatever you are doing, and some one wants to talk to you, he looks up your name in the book and there finds opposite the number of vibrations of your instrument. He tunes his instrument to that, and calls you up. A bell rings in your pocket, and you have your conversation, and, when it is finished, he puts his instrument back to its proper tune so that anyone who wants him can call him up.”

OCDC said:

Next quiz:

When and by whom was this written?

“It’s the cleverest notion I ever struck. It’s a pocket wireless telephone. They are to be made only by the Government. Every instrument is tuned to respond to a certain number of vibrations and to no other number. The Government issues a book of the names of subscribers, and supplies each subscriber with an apparatus. You can, if you like, carry with you a short list of the people with whom you mostly converse. You also carry the apparatus. Then, if you are out of doors or travelling, or whatever you are doing, and some one wants to talk to you, he looks up your name in the book and there finds opposite the number of vibrations of your instrument. He tunes his instrument to that, and calls you up. A bell rings in your pocket, and you have your conversation, and, when it is finished, he puts his instrument back to its proper tune so that anyone who wants him can call him up.”

Well it isn’t googol, but I hope that person took out a patent on his/her idea.

Kingy said:

OCDC said:

Next quiz:

When and by whom was this written?

“It’s the cleverest notion I ever struck. It’s a pocket wireless telephone. They are to be made only by the Government. Every instrument is tuned to respond to a certain number of vibrations and to no other number. The Government issues a book of the names of subscribers, and supplies each subscriber with an apparatus. You can, if you like, carry with you a short list of the people with whom you mostly converse. You also carry the apparatus. Then, if you are out of doors or travelling, or whatever you are doing, and some one wants to talk to you, he looks up your name in the book and there finds opposite the number of vibrations of your instrument. He tunes his instrument to that, and calls you up. A bell rings in your pocket, and you have your conversation, and, when it is finished, he puts his instrument back to its proper tune so that anyone who wants him can call him up.”

Well it isn’t googol, but I hope that person took out a patent on his/her idea.

Ethel Turner (author of Seven Little Australians), The Cub, 1915.

I’ve got some paper circles in hidden away for safe keeping from the geometry police ( maths teachers gone bad and mad on power)