Atoms story: Lise Meitner
You must not blame us scientists for the use which war technicians have put our discoveries (Lise Meitner.) The three most valuable sources of this essay are the Nuclear Files Project of The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Atomic Archive, and The Naked Scientists by Nicola Davis. This essay will be broken into two parts. The first part will discuss who Lise Meitner is and what made her famous. The second part will discuss what it means to be a successful scientist, how that has changed throughout history, and how our understanding of matter, science, and humanity has changed. This essay will attempt to add insight to who the key players were in the
development of the current atomic model.
Who is Lise Meitner and what made her famous?
Lise Meitner was born in Vienna, Austria on November 7, 1878 and she died in Cambridge, England on October 27th, 1968. She was the third of eight children and was born a Jew (Atomic Archive.) This means that she was a Jewish woman during the time of the Holocaust. Because of Hitler’s power in Euprope she sought refuge in other countries in fear that her research would reach a stand still. In 1938 she moved to Stockholm, Sweden to work at Manne Siegbahn’s Institute where she established contact with her nephew, Otto Frinsch, who was living in exile (Nuclear Files.) She worked with Otto Hanh for 30 years and together they produced the first nuclear fission. This was critical to the creation of the Atomic Bomb but she refused to take part in the creation of it. Even though she had nothing to do with the making of the bomb, she was still considered the “mother of the atomic bomb” (Nuclear Files.) She was refused association to the discovery that gave Otto the Noble Prize in 1945 because she was Jewish. Later, she received some credit when she was awarded the United States Enrico Fermi Prize for her contributions to physics in 1966 (Nuclear Files.)
Lise Meitner was born in Vienna, Austria on November 7, 1878 and she died in Cambridge, England on October 27th, 1968. She was the third of eight children and was born a Jew (Atomic Archive.) This means that she was a Jewish woman during the time of the Holocaust. Because of Hitler’s power in Euprope she sought refuge in other countries in fear that her research would reach a stand still. In 1938 she moved to Stockholm, Sweden to work at Manne Siegbahn’s Institute where she established contact with her nephew, Otto Frinsch, who was living in exile (Nuclear Files.) She worked with Otto Hanh for 30 years and together they produced the first nuclear fission. This was critical to the creation of the Atomic Bomb but she refused to take part in the creation of it. Even though she had nothing to do with the making of the bomb, she was still considered the “mother of the atomic bomb” (Nuclear Files.) She was refused association to the discovery that gave Otto the Noble Prize in 1945 because she was Jewish. Later, she received some credit when she was awarded the United States Enrico Fermi Prize for her contributions to physics in 1966 (Nuclear Files.)
What does it mean to be a successful scientist? How has that definition changed throughout history? How has our understanding of science, matter, and humanity changed?
Chemistry is a science about the invisible and it all started with fire. This is because when you heat up wood, at first all you have is hot wood, but then it spontaneously bursts into flame. This helped us realize that there are hidden substances that surround us and cause certain things to happen like fire and this is where our understanding of matter and science begins. This small understanding helped us control other reactions such as cooking food. From there, early humans began cooking other substances such as rocks. At first, all they could conclude was that when you heated up rocks, you got hot rocks until one of those rocks melted into copper. This influenced the scientists to melt red rocks into iron, and bake mud into bricks, etc (Cartoon Guide to Chemistry, pg. 4.) This created civilization. From here you can see how our understanding of science and humanity has changed. From beginning of time scientists have found the basics of chemistry and with that knowledge have created the basic structure for humanity to grow and with that, humans begin to understand matter. Heraclitus first suggested that everything was made of fire but Aristotle then suggested that everything consisted of four main elements, air, earth, fire, and water. This caused some scientists aggravation because if this was true then you could turn anything into gold by just reordering the elements in the substance. Jabir created many different lab resources to prove this idea. In turn, he created something else entirely, Phosphorus (pg. 5.) This means that a successful scientist is one that doesn’t give up and with their experiments, they find many new things. Some of today’s most successful discoveries were lead by silly ideas which also shows that most scientists aren’t always rational. As you can see, we have gone from a small understanding of fire to a periodic table complete with 118 elements. We also started as lone humans roaming the earth and with our newfound discoveries; we have grown closer together thus creating humanity. To be a successful scientist you can’t give up and you have to give something to the society. There are many scientists but only a few are considered successful because they contributed something to support the growth of society.
Chemistry is a science about the invisible and it all started with fire. This is because when you heat up wood, at first all you have is hot wood, but then it spontaneously bursts into flame. This helped us realize that there are hidden substances that surround us and cause certain things to happen like fire and this is where our understanding of matter and science begins. This small understanding helped us control other reactions such as cooking food. From there, early humans began cooking other substances such as rocks. At first, all they could conclude was that when you heated up rocks, you got hot rocks until one of those rocks melted into copper. This influenced the scientists to melt red rocks into iron, and bake mud into bricks, etc (Cartoon Guide to Chemistry, pg. 4.) This created civilization. From here you can see how our understanding of science and humanity has changed. From beginning of time scientists have found the basics of chemistry and with that knowledge have created the basic structure for humanity to grow and with that, humans begin to understand matter. Heraclitus first suggested that everything was made of fire but Aristotle then suggested that everything consisted of four main elements, air, earth, fire, and water. This caused some scientists aggravation because if this was true then you could turn anything into gold by just reordering the elements in the substance. Jabir created many different lab resources to prove this idea. In turn, he created something else entirely, Phosphorus (pg. 5.) This means that a successful scientist is one that doesn’t give up and with their experiments, they find many new things. Some of today’s most successful discoveries were lead by silly ideas which also shows that most scientists aren’t always rational. As you can see, we have gone from a small understanding of fire to a periodic table complete with 118 elements. We also started as lone humans roaming the earth and with our newfound discoveries; we have grown closer together thus creating humanity. To be a successful scientist you can’t give up and you have to give something to the society. There are many scientists but only a few are considered successful because they contributed something to support the growth of society.
In conclusion, Lise Meitner was a successful scientist because she contributed to the collective understanding of science and the invention of the nuclear bomb. With this said, she also played a huge role in the creation of today’s atomic model because without her discoveries we wouldn’t have as much of an understanding of how atoms work.
