He is not in the movie ‘Oppenheimer’ but his contribution was just as important as that of the protagonist. Lise Meitner “mother of the atomic bomb”but his figure was overshadowed in 1944 when one of the greatest injustices in the history of the Nobel Prizes was committed.

At the time, his historical collaborator Otto Hahn was specifically awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for an experiment that would change history: bombarding a uranium nucleus by neutrons caused it to split into two smaller nuclei, releasing a significant amount of energy. Meitner and Hahn They discovered nuclear fission.

Meitner refused to participate in the Manhattan project, being one of several women proposed and the only one who decided to decline Oppenheimer’s invitation. Despite this, its significance is reflected in a scene from Nolan’s movie. The moment they announce the discovery of nuclear fission, and all scientists think of the same thing: making a bomb. Oppenheimer brought the Manhattan project to life, but it was Meitner who made it possible.

“German Marie Curie”

Meitner, an Austrian born in 1878, was persecuted by Nazism for coming from a Jewish family. His scientific career began in the early 20th century when Ludwig Boltzmann, the father of statistical mechanics, accepted him into physics courses at the University of Vienna. Meitner was the second woman to earn a doctorate in physics.

although he is most of the race took place in Berlinstarted here at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry. Together with Max Planck and physicist Otto Hahn with whom he would work for 30 years, and that he finally walked away after the Nobel Prize was awarded.

Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn

met in 1912 Einstein, who had a great influence on him with the well-known formula E=mc². At that time, a choir of physicists was formed in Berlin, which would lay all the theoretical foundations for what came next. Meitner was known as “German Marie Curie”, although Einstein referred to her as “our Marie Curie”. Interestingly, Meitner tried to work with Marie Curie in Paris but was unsuccessful.

Meitner and Hahn achieved much under Planck’s tutelage, but the recognition was asymmetrical. In addition to working on radioactivity and uranium, Meitner was working as an X-ray technician at the hospital.

Everything changed when he was seen in 1938 Forced to flee to Sweden under Nazi threat. Institute director Hahn was asked to deport Lise from Germany. Niels Bohr offered to work with him, but Meitner’s Austrian passport was taken away. He eventually had to sneak out with Hahn’s help. Added to the difficulties of being a woman at the time was her Jewish descent, despite having been baptized by the Lutheran church years ago.

He began collaborating with his nephew Otto Frisch at the Manne Siegbahn Institute in Stockholm. And it was here that he began to understand the important consequences of the uranium experiments. Hahn published the results of his experiment in 1939, but it was Meitner from Sweden who interpreted the phenomenon and introduced the term nuclear fission in the journal Nature. revealed the existence of a chain reaction. It’s a chain reaction with a clear benefit in everyone’s mind. Meitner had just put the creation of the atomic bomb on the table.

The bitter life after the bomb

The discovery of nuclear fission resulted in the creation of the atomic bomb. In parallel with Oppenheimer’s enthusiasm after the end of the war, Meitner was also recognized for his work in the style. It was President of the United States Harry S. Truman himself who presented her with the “woman of the year” award from the National Press Club in 1946.

Lise Meitner and Harry S. Truman in 1946

Immediately after the war, the amount of rewards was huge. From his Max Planck medal to his admission to the Swedish Academy of Sciences. But, Despite being nominated more than 48 times He never received the Nobel Prize in Physics or Chemistry.

In 1947 Otto Hahn received the Nobel and never mentioned Meitner. Although it was he who suggested the possibility of the uranium core breaking apart. Hahn’s work cannot be understood without Meitner’s ideas. And indeed the first Nobel nominations were both. However, in 1945 it was decided that the award should be awarded only to Hahn. Multiple factors converged: “biased discipline, political stupidity, ignorance, and hasty,” as defined by Physics Today.

With more than 130 publications, his recognition among the great scientists of the period is beyond doubt. But he did not have a kind life in Sweden, where he lived for over 20 years. His situation in Sweden was precarious because of problems with Manne Siegban, director of the Stockholm Institute.

Eighth Solvay Conference (1948). With Lise Meitner, Oppenheimer, and the best physicists of the time

He attended two conferences at the Solvay congress on ‘The structure of the atomic nucleus’ in 1933 and ‘Elementary particles and their interactions’ in 1948. The latter coincided with Oppenheimer himself., appearing just above it in the traditional image. A convention attended by celebrities such as Paul Dirac, Wolgang Pauli, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, or Edward Teller, who played an important supporting role in the H-bomb proposal in Nolan’s film.

Element 109 is named after him.

He moved to Cambridge in 1960 and died there in 1968. Two years before his death, the United States Atomic Energy Commission awarded Hahn, Strassmann, and Meitner the Enrico Fermi Award for their discovery of fission.

He received numerous awards during his lifetime, but was not awarded one of the highest honors until 1997. IUPAC named it meitnerium To element 109, along with Marie Curie, as the only historical woman to bear her name in the periodic table.

His figure is crucial to understanding the complexity of the development of the atomic bomb. A scientist who, despite working in Berlin for decades, was persecuted by Nazi Germany, refused to participate in the Manhattan project, and was overshadowed by a Swedish academy he worked with. Lise Meitner doesn’t currently have her own Hollywood movie, but she left her mark on the history of the atomic bomb.

Pictures | Store Norske Leksikon | Public property | International News Photo | International Institute of Physics Solvay | Smithsonian Institution Archives

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