On the eve of WW II the physicist Lise Meitner, then living in
Sweden, realized that the puzzling results reported to her by her
colleagues in Berlin meant they had split the atom. Now Sime
(Chemistry/Sacramento City College) tells the absorbing story of
her life. Born in 1878, Meitner was a native of Vienna, enjoying
the support of a loving family as she pursued not only a university
education but a career in physics. As an adult Meitner converted
from Judaism to Protestantism. She moved to Berlin and began doing
research with the sufferance of the director of the chemistry
institute: She could enter only through a side door to a basement
room and was forced to use the toilet facilities of a restaurant
down the street. Here began her close but curiously formal
partnership with chemist Otto Hahn, later joined by Fritz
Strassmann. For the technically minded, Sime provides the details
of the painstaking experiments in which radioactive elements were
bombarded with neutrons. In time, Meitner would gain the position
and salary commensurate with her brilliance, as well as the
recognition of Rutherford, Bohr, Einstein, Planck - anyone who was
anybody in the pantheon of nuclear physics. But the '30s were to
put an end to the collaboration, with the ever-increasing
persecution of Jews (conversion did not count). Sime tells a
suspenseful tale of Meitner's escape to Sweden, where she was given
a place to work but essentially neither equipment nor staff to aid
her. In the end it was Hahn and Strassmann who got the Nobel Prize
- Hahn providing a revisionist history which does him no credit.
Meitner remained loyal, if disenchanted, for the rest of her life.
She spent her last years in England, dying at 90. Her epitaph,
chosen by her beloved nephew Otto Frisch, was: "Lise Meitner: a
physicist who never lost her humanity." It is precisely that
combination that Sime captures in this scrupulously researched
biography. (Kirkus Reviews)
Lise Meitner (1878-1968) was a pioneer of nuclear physics and
co-discoverer, with Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, of nuclear
fission. Braving the sexism of the scientific world, she joined the
prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry and became a
prominent member of the international physics community. Of Jewish
origin, Meitner fled Nazi Germany for Stockholm in 1938 and later
moved to Cambridge, England. Her career was shattered when she fled
Germany, and her scientific reputation was damaged when Hahn took
full credit - and the 1944 Nobel Prize - for the work they had done
together on nuclear fission. Ruth Sime's absorbing book is the
definitive biography of Lise Meitner, the story of a brilliant
woman whose extraordinary life illustrates not only the dramatic
scientific progress but also the injustice and destruction that
have marked the twentieth century.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
