by Olive Pea
“Life need not be easy, provided only that it is not empty” stated Lise Meitner. Despite being at a disadvantage in many ways, Lise Meitner earned the impressive title “Mother of the Atomic Bomb”. She was a determined physicist who made many discoveries such as the radioactive element protactinium, and nuclear fission. She has paved the way for women in all science research fields.
Lise Meitner has a captivating life story. She was born the year 1878 to a well-off family in Vienna, Austria. Lise got a tutor for school in physics, and at the age of 27 in the year 1906 she earned a PHD in physics at the University of Vienna. Lise was the second woman to do so. In 1907 she moved to Germany to work with chemist Otto Hahn. Her laboratory was at the University of Berlin, and since she was a woman she received no pay for her work. Not to mention her workspace was a damp, converted carpenter’s shop! Since she could not get a paying job, she lived off of a small allowance from her parents.Together, Lise and Otto Hahn discovered many Beta emitters. In 1914, she helped wounded soldiers of WWI by taking their X-Rays. In the same year, Otto Hahn started working on developing chemical weaponry for Germany.
When Lise concluded helping with the wounded soldiers and Otto finished working on Germany’s chemical weapons, they both went back to studying physics. They discovered the highly radioactive element, protactinium (element 91), while studying the mineral pitchblende in the years 1917-1918.
In the summer of 1938, Lise had to flee Nazi Germany because she was Jewish. Otto tried to get her a passport, but it was rejected. She packed only two suitcases, and had to leave her life’s work behind. Dirk Coster, a friend of Lise, assisted with her escape to Sweden. Lise could now only secretly communicate with Otto Hahn via letter, which slowed everything down in their research. During Christmas in 1938, Lise and her nephew, Otto Robert Frisch, discovered nuclear fission. Nephew Frisch later wrote, “We took a walk up and down in the snow, I on skis, and she on foot, and gradually, the idea took shape.” In 1942, Lise was invited to work on the Manhattan Project, and rejected. She said, “I will have nothing to do with a bomb!”.
In 1939, Otto Hahn took all credit for the discovery of nuclear fission, even though he and his collaborator, chemist Fritz Strassmann, only provided the evidence for it. He stated, “In all our work, we absolutely never touched on Physics. Instead, we only did chemical separations, over and over again.” In 1944, he won the Nobel Prize and at the time, most of the credit for Lise’s discovery. He probably did this due to political danger in Germany, with Lise being a Jewish exile, and his illegal communication with her. This put a lot of strain in their friendship, but they still remained friends somehow. She did not speak against him publicly, but she would express her view to him in letters. Lise once wrote to Otto, “You all worked for Nazi Germany, and you did not even try passive resistance. And millions of innocent people were murdered, and there was no protest. You first betrayed your friends, then your men, and your children, in that you let them give their lives in a criminal war, and you betrayed Germany itself. Perhaps you will remember that while I was still in Germany, I often said to you, as long as only we have sleepless nights, and not you, things will not get better in Germany. But you had no sleepless nights. You did not want to see. It was too uncomfortable.” Lise settled in England and remained there till the end of her days.
Lise Meitner’s hard work, determination, and discoveries have greatly impacted science today. Her fascinating, even empowering against-the-odds story has inspired and paved the way for many scientists, especially women, to this day. In fact, element 109, first discovered in Germany the year 1982, was named Meitnerium in her honor.
The Lighthouse 