Suspicious of the food he was being served at his boarding house, Georg de Hevesy conducted a simple experiment at dinner one evening. While his landlady's attentions were diverted elsewhere, he sprinkled a piece of fatty meat at the side of his plate with a microscopic amount of a radioactive material.

When, the next day, "meat hash" was served for dinner, Hevesy passed a Geiger counter over his plate. Its frenzied clicking confirmed his suspicions and he promptly left the table and found another home.