Roentgen's scientific career was one beset with difficulties. As a student in Holland, he was expelled from the Utrecht Technical School for a prank committed by another student. His lack of a diploma initially prevented him from obtaining a position at the University of Wrzburg even after he received his doctorate, although he eventually was accepted. His experiments at Wrzburg focused on light phenomena and other emissions generated by discharging electrical current in so-called "Crookes tubes," glass bulbs with positive and negative electrodes, evacuated of air, which display a fluorescent glow when a high voltage current is passed through it. He was particularly interested in cathode rays and in assessing their range outside of charged tubes.

Roentgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901 for his discovery. When asked what his thoughts were at the moment of discovery, he replied, true to form, "I didn't think, I investigated." Today, Roentgen is widely recognized as a brilliant experimentalist who never sought honors or financial profits for his research. He rejected a title that would have given him entry into the German nobility, and donated his Nobel Prize money to his university. While he accepted the honorary degree of doctor of medicine offered to him by his own university, he never took out any patents on X-rays, to ensure that the world could freely benefit from his work. His altruism came at considerable personal cost: at the time of his death in 1923, Roentgen was nearly bankrupt from the inflation following World War I.

There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?- Jonas Salk, 1955

The notion handed down to us is that Salk decided not to patent the vaccine as a noble act of self-abnegation. He unwittingly launched this misconception himself, during a live televised interview with Edward R. Murrow on April 12, 1955. Murrow asked, guilelessly, "Who owns the patent on this vaccine?" Salk responded with a line that would become world famous: "Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

Jonas Salk was born in New York City. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants who, although they themselves lacked formal education, were determined to see their children succeed, and encouraged them to study hard. Jonas Salk was the first member of his family to go to collegeIn 1955 Salk's years of research paid off. Human trials of the polio vaccine effectively protected the subject from the polio virus. When news of the discovery was made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was hailed as a miracle worker. He further endeared himself to the public by refusing to patent the vaccine. He had no desire to profit personally from the discovery, but merely wished to see the vaccine disseminated as widely as possible.