|
LISA MEITNER
the stolen nobel
 Think
you are jewish woman in Germany in the late '20s, and you
happen to be the first scientist in the word to recognize
nuclear fission. Do you think you would get much credit for
that? Or is it more likely that your german male collaborator
will ?
This is the story of Lisa Meitner, the wrong person in the
wrong moment of history. The daughter of a lawyer, with an
instinct for science, was the first woman to get a PhD in
physics at the University of Vienna. Then she moved to Berlin.
She studied with giants like Boltzmann and Plank.
Among many hurdles, she became professor in Berlin, and started
working on radioactivity with Otto Hahn. In 1917, working
with Otto Hahn, she isolated the most stable isotope of the
element protactinium; she also investigated the disintegration
products of radium, thorium, and actinium and the behavior
of beta rays.
Nuclear physics was buzzing just as the Nazi's took power.
Being a Jew, Lise had to eventually leave Germany. Niels Bohr
helped her escape and arranged an appointment for her at the
physics institute in Stockholm.
In 1938 she participated in experimental research in bombarding
the uranium nucleus with slow-speed neutrons. Meitner was
the one that correctly explained the puzzling results, as
a fission of the nucleus and calculated that vast amounts
of energy were liberated. Her conclusion contributed to the
development of the atomic bomb, fact that saddened her.
In 1946 Otto Hahn received the Nobel Prize for that discovery,
but Lise was never so honored. Hahn never did much to
change that, although he knew what the contribution of Meitner
had been. Despite this, they remained friends. She quietly
returned to work on subatomic particles, especially beta rays.
However, she had some secondary awards: the Max Planck Medal,
the Leibnitz Medal, and in 1966 she shared the Fermi Award.
A new book makes a convincing case that she played a vital
role in their discovery of fission late in 1938 and that she
should, by rights, have shared the Nobel prize Hahn received
in 1944. With Hahn downplayed his collaboration with Meitner
and her involvement in the discovery of fission; as his fame
rose hers gradually faded, especially inside Germany. She
retired to Cambridge, England where she died shortly before
her 90th birthday, in 1968.
Lise
Meitner : A Life in Physics
by Ruth Lewin Sime
"... Meitner's 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".
From the Back Cover
"Deprived of the Nobel Prize she so clearly deserved for her
contribution to the discovery of nuclear fission, Lise Meitner
has never been given the attention she deserves in the history
of twentieth-century physics. Now, with grace, style, and
great authority, Ruth Sime sets the record straight."
|
