Lise Meitner example essay topic

Meitner Lise Biography and Social / Historical context Alan Li 10/12 Lise Meitner was born in Vienna, Austria in 1868. Her parents placed great value on education, and she was educated privately, by personal tutor. It was during her youth that she discovered her talent and interest in mathematics and physics. She focused on these two subjects, and was able to pass the entrance exams for Vienna University, a prestigious institution attended by such luminaries as Freud. She was the second woman to receive a Ph. D. in science. Lise studied radio activity and had one of the first experiments that showed Alpha rays were slightly deflected when passing through matter.

She discovered protactinium in 1917. She worked with Otto Hahn from 1934-1938 and was able to simplify Gamma and Beta rays when she had to leave Nazi Germany. After she left she made a huge discovery. Lise came up with a mathematical theory for splitting an atom. The energy released contributes to the discovery of the atom bomb. She ended her research then and there because she didn't want to research such an evil thing.

The creation of the atomic bomb is widely believed to be a triumph of American science during the Second World War. However, it is ironically the efforts of the refugee scientists from the Axis countries that largely enabled the United States to triumphantly produce the greatest weapon ever made. Lise Meitner, a contemporary of Einstein's, was a remarkable nuclear physicist whose discovery of nuclear fission paved the way for the Manhattan project, although she was unaware of the project itself. She did not share in the credit for that discovery, in any case, having been passed up by the Nobel Prize committee, while her collaborator, Otto Hahn, did receive the prize in 1945.

As well her scientific achievements, Lise Meitner is remembered for her struggle in the face of adverse social, cultural & historical conditions. It seems fitting that, like her childhood heroes Florence Nightingale and Marie Curie; she is regarded as a feminist icon for her efforts and achievements. As one might imagine, it was highly difficult for a woman to fit in to the socially conservative, closed world of high level science. In her university days, she was perhaps the only woman in a lecture theatre of 100 men. Some professors were embracing, others begrudging and many were openly hostile to women in their classes. Throughout her life, Lise Meitner's two great loves were music and walking in her beloved Austrian mountains.

Although she became a Swedish citizen after moving there in July 1938, she always retained Austrian citizenship, and often remarked about how she missed the scenery of her native land. She worked hard no matter what others thought of it. In 1945, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Otto Hahn for the discovery of nuclear fission. Even though, that was partly Lise's Discovery too. She never once said anything of the misjudgment, therefore realizing Lise just was happy to discover nuclear fusion and be apart of that. She was later honored for her part in that experiment.

"Meitner, Lise". Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2003. Encyclopaedia Britannica Premium Service. 12 Oct, 2003.

McG rayne, S.B. "Lise Meitner". Ch. 3 in Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries. New York: Birch Lane Press, pp. 37-63, 1992.