If you have ever wondered why you can’t take your badminton racquet on a plane its because it (along with other blunt things that could be used to bludgeon) are prohibited items under regulation 1.07 of the Aviation Transport Security Regulations 2005. Other blunt things include any piece of wood or metal big enough to threaten someone with, although walking sticks and crutches are exempt. The real reason I am telling you this is because I want to re-tell an airport security story recently told by Professor Brian Schmidt (US born astro-physicist who works at ANU and who won the Nobel prize for physics in 2011). You may have seen him on Q&A recently.

The good professor took his Nobel medal to show his grandmother in Fargo, North Dakota (I thought it was in Minnesota). Gold absorbs all x-rays and appears “black” to airport security scanners. This raised the interest of the security officers and the following occurred:

“They’re like, ‘Sir, there’s something in your bag.’

I said, ‘Yes, I think it’s this box.’

They said, ‘What’s in the box?’

I said, ‘a large gold medal,’ as one does.

So they opened it up and they said, ‘What’s it made out of?’

I said, ‘gold.’ [what else is a large gold medal made out of, I wonder?]

And they’re like, ‘Uhhhh. Who gave this to you?’

‘The King of Sweden.’

‘Why did he give this to you?’

‘Because I helped discover the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating.’

At which point, they were beginning to lose their sense of humour. I explained to them it was a Nobel prize, and their main question was, ‘Why were you in Fargo?’”

You can read more of the original story by clicking here. Creative commons acknowledgment for the photograph.