Politics, Persecution, and the Prize: Lise Meitner and the Discovery of Nuclear Fission, 2018
The discovery of nuclear fission took place in Berlin at the end of 1938, and the Nobel Prize for... more The discovery of nuclear fission took place in Berlin at the end of 1938, and the Nobel Prize for the discovery was awarded to the chemist Otto Hahn in 1945. Because the award excluded the physicist Lise Meitner, it has always been controversial, raising questions about the fairness and competency of the Nobel decisions. Here I outline the interdisciplinary collaboration of Meitner, Hahn, and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin that culminated in the fission discovery, showing how Meitner's forced emigration from Germany distorted the scientific attribution for the discovery and led Hahn to deny that Meitner and physics had contributed to it. In discussing the Nobel decisions to award a prize only to Hahn, and not to Meitner, Strassmann, or Otto Robert Frisch, with whom Meitner devised the first theoretical interpretation of the fission process, I examine Meitner's situation as a woman and a foreigner in Swedish exile and her difficult experience with the Swedish physicist Manne Siegbahn.
This article reviews The Mental Aftermath: The Mentality of German Physicists 1945-1949 by Klaus ... more This article reviews The Mental Aftermath: The Mentality of German Physicists 1945-1949 by Klaus Hentschel , translated by Ann M. Hentschel. 205 pp. , 2007. Price: $60.00(cloth) ISBN 978-0-19-920566-0.
In November 1945, three months after the end of World War II, a narrow majority of the members of... more In November 1945, three months after the end of World War II, a narrow majority of the members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Otto Hahn for the discovery of nuclear fission. The award was and still remains controversial, primarily because Hahn's Berlin colleagues, the chemist Fritz Strassmann and the physicist Lise Meitner, were not included. Probably, Strassmann was ignored because he was not a senior scientist. Meitner's exclusion, however, points to other flaws in the decision process, and to four factors in particular: the difficulty of evaluating an interdisciplinary discovery, a lack of expertise in theoretical physics, Sweden's scientific and political isolation during the war, and a general failure of the evaluation committees to appreciate the extent to which German persecution of Jews skewed the published scientific record.
ChemInform Abstract Das Fe(III)-Ionophor Ferrichrom des Brandpilzes Ustilago sphaerogena wird aus... more ChemInform Abstract Das Fe(III)-Ionophor Ferrichrom des Brandpilzes Ustilago sphaerogena wird aus Eisenkulturen isoliert und durch Anionenaustausch und Silicagel-Chromatographie gereinigt. Das Chelat kristallisiert aus wässrigen Methanollösungen und besitzt die aumgruppe P2, 2, 21 mit Z=4. Das Molekül besitzt eine A-cis absolute Konfiguration im kristallinen Zustand und in Lösung und ist konformationell dem Ferrichrom Asehrähnlich.
Politics, Persecution, and the Prize: Lise Meitner and the Discovery of Nuclear Fission, 2018
The discovery of nuclear fission took place in Berlin at the end of 1938, and the Nobel Prize for... more The discovery of nuclear fission took place in Berlin at the end of 1938, and the Nobel Prize for the discovery was awarded to the chemist Otto Hahn in 1945. Because the award excluded the physicist Lise Meitner, it has always been controversial, raising questions about the fairness and competency of the Nobel decisions. Here I outline the interdisciplinary collaboration of Meitner, Hahn, and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin that culminated in the fission discovery, showing how Meitner's forced emigration from Germany distorted the scientific attribution for the discovery and led Hahn to deny that Meitner and physics had contributed to it. In discussing the Nobel decisions to award a prize only to Hahn, and not to Meitner, Strassmann, or Otto Robert Frisch, with whom Meitner devised the first theoretical interpretation of the fission process, I examine Meitner's situation as a woman and a foreigner in Swedish exile and her difficult experience with the Swedish physicist Manne Siegbahn.
This article reviews The Mental Aftermath: The Mentality of German Physicists 1945-1949 by Klaus ... more This article reviews The Mental Aftermath: The Mentality of German Physicists 1945-1949 by Klaus Hentschel , translated by Ann M. Hentschel. 205 pp. , 2007. Price: $60.00(cloth) ISBN 978-0-19-920566-0.
In November 1945, three months after the end of World War II, a narrow majority of the members of... more In November 1945, three months after the end of World War II, a narrow majority of the members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Otto Hahn for the discovery of nuclear fission. The award was and still remains controversial, primarily because Hahn's Berlin colleagues, the chemist Fritz Strassmann and the physicist Lise Meitner, were not included. Probably, Strassmann was ignored because he was not a senior scientist. Meitner's exclusion, however, points to other flaws in the decision process, and to four factors in particular: the difficulty of evaluating an interdisciplinary discovery, a lack of expertise in theoretical physics, Sweden's scientific and political isolation during the war, and a general failure of the evaluation committees to appreciate the extent to which German persecution of Jews skewed the published scientific record.
ChemInform Abstract Das Fe(III)-Ionophor Ferrichrom des Brandpilzes Ustilago sphaerogena wird aus... more ChemInform Abstract Das Fe(III)-Ionophor Ferrichrom des Brandpilzes Ustilago sphaerogena wird aus Eisenkulturen isoliert und durch Anionenaustausch und Silicagel-Chromatographie gereinigt. Das Chelat kristallisiert aus wässrigen Methanollösungen und besitzt die aumgruppe P2, 2, 21 mit Z=4. Das Molekül besitzt eine A-cis absolute Konfiguration im kristallinen Zustand und in Lösung und ist konformationell dem Ferrichrom Asehrähnlich.
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