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 socalled "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 college
In 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.