Sheril KirshenbaumDec 26, 2022

Fission is in the news, but few recognize that a woman physicist was behind the discovery.

Lise Meitner’s brilliance led to the discovery of nuclear fission. But her long time collaborator Otto Hahn, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry w/o her in 1944, even though she had given the first theoretical explanation.

Albert Einstein called Meitner “our Marie Curie." She also adamantly refused to work on the atomic bomb during WWII. https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201502/physicshistory.cfm #women #history #science #HistoryRemix

This Month in Physics History

February 11, 1939: Meitner/Frisch paper on nuclear fission

Show threadClemens Grabmayer
@Sheril Thank you! -- Ironically A.E. seems to have called Austrian Lise Meitner "the German Marie Curie". The link you gave clears that up to some degree, but with "public universities in Germany at the time did not admit women" conversely identifies a reason (for her private education in physics) for which actually Austrian universities have been culpable (at least culpable as well). -- Thank you again very much indeed.
Dec 26, 2022 at 4:22pmWeb