Reference
- Meitner, Lise (1878-1968)Austrian-born Swedish physicist who was one of the first scientists to study radioactive decay and the radiations emitted during this process. Her most famous work was done in 1938, in collaboration with her nephew Otto Frisch, describing for the first time the splitting or fission of the uranium nucleus under neutron bombardment. This publication provoked a flurry of research activity and was of pivotal importance in the development of nuclear physics.
Meitner was born in Vienna on 7 November 1878. She became interested in science at an early age, but before studying physics, her parents insisted that she should first qualify as a French teacher in order to be certain of supporting herself. She passed the examination in French and then entered the University of Vienna in 1901. She obtained her PhD from that university in 1905, becoming only the second woman to do so, her thesis work on thermal conduction having been supervised by Ludwig Boltzmann.
In 1907, Meitner entered the University of Berlin to continue her studies under Max Planck. She met Otto Hahn soon after arriving in Berlin. He was seeking a physicist to work with him on radioactivity at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry. Meitner joined Hahn, but their supervisor Emil Fischer would not allow Meitner to work in his laboratory because she was a woman, and they had to set up a small laboratory in a carpenter's workroom. Despite this inauspicious start, Meitner became a member of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute in 1912, and in 1917 was made joint director of the institute with Hahn and was also appointed head of the physics department.
In 1912 Meitner had also become an assistant to Planck at the Berlin Institute of Theoretical Physics. She was appointed docent at the University of Berlin in 1922, and then made extraordinary professor of physics in 1926. Meitner, who was Jewish, remained in Berlin when the Nazis came to power in 1933 because she was protected by her Austrian citizenship. However the German annexation of Austria in 1938 deprived her of this citizenship and placed her life in danger. With the aid of Dutch scientists, she escaped to Holland and soon moved to Denmark as the guest of Niels Bohr. She was then offered a post at the Nobel Physical Institute in Stockholm, where a cyclotron was being built, and Meitner accepted. It was shortly after her arrival in Sweden that Meitner and Frisch, who was working at Bohr's Institute in Copenhagen, made the discovery of nuclear fission...
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Perspectives
Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner (1878-1968) was a pioneer of nuclear physics and co-discoverer, with Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, of nuclear fission. Braving the sexism of the scientific world, she joined the prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry and became a prominent member of the international physics community. Of Jewish origin, Meitner fled Nazi Germany for Stockholm in 1938 and later moved to Cambridge, England. Her career was shattered when she fled Germany, and her scientific reputation was damaged when Hahn took full credit--and the 1944 Nobel Prize--for the work they had done together on nuclear fission. Ruth Sime's absorbing book is the definitive biography of Lise Meitner, the story of a brilliant woman whose extraordinary life illustrates not only the dramatic scientific progress but also the injustice and destruction that have marked the twentieth century.
Lise Meitner and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age
In this fascinating biography, Patricia Rife interprets both the life and times of Lise Meitner (1878-1968), providing a rich background of the scientific discoveries and social milieu that affected the research, events, personalities, and politics of 20th century quantum physics. Rife asks the central question of why, given the priority evidence of Meitner's role in the interpretation of nuclear fission, was she too not awarded the Nobel Prize?
Wonder Women
Ever heard of Allied spy Noor Inayat Khan, a Muslim woman whom the Nazis considered "highly dangerous"? Or German painter and entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian, who planned and embarked on the world's first scientific expedition? How about Huang Daopo, the inven-tor who fled an abusive child marriage only to revolutionize textile production in China? Women have always been able to change the world, even when they didn't get the credit. In Wonder Women, author Sam Maggs introduces you to pioneering female scientists, engineers, mathematicians, adventurers, and inventors-each profile a study in passion, smarts, and stick-to-itiveness, complete with portraits by Google doodler Sophia Foster-Dimino, an extensive bibliography, and a guide to present-day women-centric STEM organizations.
Discovery of Nuclear fission
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
In 1938 Otto Hahn repeats Fermi's experiments work and identifies barium. His colleague Lise Meitner imagines the uranium nucleus as as an unstable drop ready to divide with the impact of a single neutron. Prof. Al-Khalil demonstrates with a water-filled balloon. A BBC Production.
The Bomb
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowThis is the story of the most powerful and destructive device ever invented. With newly restored footage, go behind the scenes of the first atomic bomb, revealing how it was developed and how it changed the planet. Examine the choices society has made since 1945--and continues to make--to live with an invention that could destroy the planet. Distributed by PBS Distribution.
Lise Meitner
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowThis documentary explores Lise Meitner and her role in creating the atomic bomb during the 1930s while also making a name for herself as a pioneer of feminism.
Online Resources
- Lise Meitner (1878–1968) A physicist who never lost her humanity: A Physicist Who Never Lost Her HumanityLise Meitner, was born on November 7, 1878 in Vienna, Austria into a Jewish family. Right
from the beginning, she was interested in mathematics and physics. She completed her public
school education by the age of 14. Further education was not a possibility, since in Austria,
women were not permitted in the universities till ∼1900. In 1901, she passed the qualier
examination required to enter university by studying at home. The intellectually stimulating
family atmosphere and supportive parents, enabled her to pursue a career in science. - A tale of resilience: The periodic table after radioactivity and the discovery of the neutronThe physicist Lise Meitner and the chemist Ida Noddack were, in different ways, involved in discoveries and interpretations of the periodic system. In 1934, as part of the celebration of the centenary of Dmitri Mendeleev's birth, they each published an article on the system: Meitner in Die Naturwissenschaften, and Noddack in Angewandte Chemie. These two articles, written from the perspectives of a nuclear physicist and a chemist experienced in searching for undiscovered elements, respectively, constitute excellent sources for understanding what new discoveries and insights meant for the meaning and value of the periodic system at the very beginning of the nuclear age in science. Through an analysis of the two contributions, we will argue that resilience is the foremost value of the periodic system. We will also discuss what this value means for the future of the periodic system and its representations.
The Path to Nuclear Fission
- Kanopy This link opens in a new window
The story of two close friends who discovered nuclear fission is told in great detail within the context of both World Wars. This video is as much about role of scientists in political events, social responsibility, and discrimination against women and Jews, as it is about the science, though the science is clearly explained. Archival film footage and photographs are extensively and effectively used throughout the production. Most fascinating are the contrasting life choices made by these two scientists. They were close collaborators and good friends during the first 20 years of their professional life. However, Lise Meitner, a physicist, faced early discrimination as a woman and later as a Jew. She was forced to flee Germany as the Nazis established their hold over the country in the 1930s. Though given the opportunity, she refused to participate in the U.S. Manhattan project to develop the atomic bomb. Otto Hahn, a chemist, ended up collaborating and being a key leader of the Nazi wartime atomic project. Though he secretly collaborated with Lise in exile, he refused to acknowledge her role in explaining nuclear fission, taking sole credit and ultimately the Nobel Prize for this discovery. Yet Lise actually coined the term "nuclear fission" and worked out the actual physics in the first published explanation of the phenomena.