The Unveiled Force
Lise Meitner observed a tremendous, double-edged energy source capable of destroying the planet, while boosting the development of human industry.
“Traditional prejudice against women scientists became an obstacle that hindered her from awarding the Nobel Prize and other scientific prizes. She was nominated 19 times for Physics Nobel Prizes and 30 times for Chemistry Nobel Prizes, but she never received one.”
In 1939, a lethal discovery came out to the world with the contrasting potential for human barbarity and the infinite development of human society: nuclear fission, a massive energy source that could light the world for millennia. However, the discovery was made under chaotic circumstances—World War II, which eagerly led numerous countries to develop nuclear weapons. Tragically, this revolutionary finding turned into an instrument of slaughter in just a few years. On August 6, 1945, the first catastrophic nuclear weapon, the atomic bomb, cut through the sky of Hiroshima, Japan. Behind this terrible scene was Lise Meitner. Although the technology was used for war, her dedication to exploration in science and her unbreakable humanity pioneered the field of nuclear fission in positive ways that continue to benefit society.
Lise Meitner was born on November 7, 1878, in Austria. She was Jewish and became the center of racial controversies in Austria. Despite her background, her family could support her education financially, which was not common for women at that time. It allowed her to explore scientific fields more deeply. Her journey through science started at the age of 8. Fortunately, the Austrian government “constructed 170 new elementary and secondary schools, building most of these between 1868 and 1879”, which allowed her to attend school within easy reach. Her enthusiasm for science grew stronger. From 1897, women were now allowed to enroll in “gymnasium”—a secondary school that prepares students for higher education in universities—by new laws, and Meitner grasped that opportunity. She later got into Vienna University and published a doctoral thesis about the conduction of heat in inhomogeneous solids. This thesis became the cornerstone of her efforts towards science.
This diagram visualizes the process of nuclear fission with uranium and how an uranium nucleus breaks down into fragments with different structures.
While she was studying physics under Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann at Vienna University, Otto Hahn, a chemist in the radiochemistry field, was seeking a scientist who could collaborate with him in the study of the nuclear field. He believed that Lise Meitner was a competent individual. With Hahn’s proposal for joint research, she moved to Berlin, Germany, in 1907.
When she started studying deeper into atoms and nuclear structures, James Chadwick’s discovery of neutrons substantially expanded the fields of nuclear physics and radioactivity in 1932. An atom can be referred to as a tiny solar system. In the center of the atom, there is a core called a nucleus. This nucleus is made up of small particles called protons and neutrons. While protons have positive charges and work as a magnet, neutrons don’t attract nor push away anything. The identification of neutrons helped to understand atomic structure and explain how nuclear reactions work: Meitner and Hahn were dedicated to determining the neutron bombardment of uranium.
Back in the early twentieth century, scientists believed that bombarding uranium with neutrons would only result in a small change in the numbers of protons and neutrons that make up a uranium atom, or it would make a heavier element called transuranium. In 1934, a physicist named Enrico Fermi found a heavier uranium atom after bombarding it. His result led scientists to eliminate the idea that it could break uranium into significantly lighter elements.
When World War II broke out and Austria was annexed by Germany, Meitner fled to Sweden to escape the Holocaust. But things were not favorable there either. She continued her research at the Siegbahn Institute, but it didn’t support her financially and equipment-wise because the head of the institute, Siegbahn, had intense prejudice towards women scientists. Although she didn’t make much progress on her discovery, they kept on corresponding with each other, advising on their cooperative research.
The first nuclear weapon ever made, Trinity, was detonated in New Mexico, United States.
In late 1938, Hahn and his fellow scientist Fritz Strassmann finally identified a remarkable result from their experiments: a uranium nucleus was broken into two radioactive barium isotopes, which were approximately half as heavy as the original uranium nucleus. In other words, it created lighter elements by separating 92 protons into two groups of protons, each having 36 and 56 protons. This new detection completely transformed past ideas of bombardment. Hahn sent a letter to Meitner about their findings, and Meitner and her nephew, Otto Frisch, named the reaction “nuclear fission” and concluded that one reaction could cause multiple chain reactions. First, a single neutron collides with uranium, splitting it. During this process, uranium releases a tremendous amount of energy along with two or three free neutrons. Those neutrons hit other uranium atoms and unstable them too. Hahn and Strassmann announced nuclear fission and drew attention from all around the world. However, the world paid no attention to her, and the spotlight she deserved was taken by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann.
After their research was published, the war-engaged nations started to take interest in the research and reached out to them because they too saw possibilities of winning the war from it.
Meitner was invited to collaborate in the Manhattan Project, a top-secret initiative that was led by the United States, England, and Canada. This project began in 1942, driven by concern that Nazi Germany was introducing nuclear weapons. Hahn and Frisch joined the project and the effort to produce atomic bombs, and then they advised Meitner to follow them. However, she realized that it would take millions of people’s lives away and devastate the world, so she refused to participate, keeping her humanity. Finally, on July 16, 1945, the project culminated in the successful detonation of the first atomic bomb, “Trinity,” in New Mexico. In that same year, August 6, 80,000 Japanese in Hiroshima saw a whale-like metal falling from the sky. Three days later, 75,000 people were vaporized in Nagasaki by the nuclear bombs, nicknamed “Fat Man.” The total number of killed victims because of nuclear weapons during World War II exceeded 200,000.
Meitner was depressed by the news that nuclear fission was used in the war, but she pursued to study deeper into it relentlessly. Later, she contributed to establishing the first Sweden nuclear reactor, R1. From the end of the war, scientists started to utilize nuclear energy in peaceful usages. They set up nuclear reactors in nations worldwide. In a nuclear reactor, nuclear chain reaction moderators were installed in reactors that helped control the power from it. Fission of uranium-235 would produce heat, boiling water with high temperature to evaporate. Through this process, it activates electric generators. This method to create energy is carbon-free, which is environmentally highly sustainable. Today, it generates one-third of the world’s low carbon energy—it’s equivalent to 9 percent of the world's electricity in total. Nuclear technology goes beyond the provision of environmentally-friendly energy; it also powers our missions to explore space that humans have dreamed and planned from Meitner’s generation.
Despite her scientific advancement, Otto Hahn became the winner of the Nobel Prize by the discovery of nuclear fission. The fact that was ignored: Meitner was the one who suggested that uranium might disintegrate and who told Hahn to focus on examining radium which has high radioactivity. Traditional prejudice against women scientists became an obstacle that hindered her from awarding the Nobel Prize and other scientific prizes. She was nominated 19 times for Physics Nobel Prizes and 30 times for Chemistry Nobel Prizes, but she never received one.
Meitner’s endeavor was the foundation of the discovery. Although she could have abused her knowledge about the new nuclear technology for personal benefit, she decided to maintain her humanity. This choice differentiated Meitner and other scientists in that period when so many used the technology for violence, showing her unbreakable integrity and compassion.
Works Cited
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Chodos, Alan. “Discovery of Nuclear Fission.” Www.aps.org, 3 Dec. 2007, www.aps.org/apsnews/2007/12/december-1938-discovery-nuclear-fission. Galindo, Andrea. “What Is Nuclear Energy? The Science of Nuclear Power.” International Atomic Energy Agency, 15 Nov. 2022, www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/what-is-nuclear-energy-the-science-of-nuclear-power.
“Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and Fritz Strassmann.” Science History Institute, www.sciencehistory.org/education/scientific-biographies/otto-hahn-lise-meitne r-and-fritz-strassmann/.
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