Liz Mesner is a pioneer physicist, and her work is often neglected. Reese Mesner is a pioneer physicist who studies radioactivity and nuclear physics. She is a member of the team that discovered nuclear fission. She coined the word, but when her colleague otto hahn1945 won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, she was ignored. She is called "the mother of the atomic bomb", although she is not directly related to the development of the atomic bomb. The element 109 was named in memory of her.

Life and Discovery1October 7th, Liz Methner was born in Vienna, the third of eight children in her Jewish family.

Due to Austrian restrictions on women's education, Mesner can't go to college; However, her family can afford private school education, and she completed it by 190 1. She continued her postgraduate studies at Vienna University. Inspired by her teacher, physicist Ludwig Pozmann, she studied physics, focusing on radioactivity. 1905, she became the second woman in the university to get a doctorate.

Soon after, physicist Max Planck allowed her to attend his lecture-a rare gesture for him; Before that, he refused any woman who wanted to attend his lecture. Mesner later became Planck's assistant. She also cooperated with Hahn, and together they discovered several isotopes.

1923, Mattenaz discovered the non-radiative transition. Unfortunately, her discovery didn't get much praise. It is called the Og effect, because the French scientist Pierre Victor Og discovered this phenomenon two years later.

Maitenaz and Hahn have been working together for about 30 years. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, they were one of the first people to isolate the isotope protinium-23 1 in their research. They also studied nuclear isomerism and beta decay, and led a department of Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry in Berlin. In 1930s, Fritz Strassman joined this group, and the three of them studied the products of neutron bombardment of uranium.

1938 After Germany annexed Austria, Messner, who was born in Vienna, fled Nazi Germany and moved to Sweden, where it was safer for Jews like her, even though she was a Protestant. She found herself at Manny Sigban College in Stockholm, but she never seemed to be popular. Ruth Lei Wen Sim later wrote in her book Alice Methner: Life in Physics: "She didn't ask to join Sigban's team or provide her own resources. She has laboratory space, but she doesn't have collaborators, equipment or technical support, or even the keys to her own workshop and laboratory. " Mesner is considered to be divorced from the institute's own personnel ",not to say that she is an outstanding scientist. According to Sim, Sigban's prejudice against women in the field of science played a great role in her treatment.

1938165438+10/3, Hahn met Methner secretly in Copenhagen. She suggested that Hahn and Strassman conduct further tests on uranium products they suspected were radium. This substance is actually barium, and they published their research results in the journal 19391October 6.

At the same time, Mesner and her nephew Otto Frish joined hands to put forward the word "fission" in June 1939. Fission means that atoms separate and produce energy. They also explained this process in a paper published in Nature on February 1939+0 1. Frish later wrote to his menstruation and said, "Boltzmann gave her a vision of physics, that is, fighting for the ultimate truth, a vision that she never lost."

"It was Liz Mesner who interpreted these experiments as splitting atoms." When this paper was published, all the leading physicists at that time immediately realized that it was a huge destructive energy source, "said Ronald K.Smelzer, curator of Glorier, an exhibition to observe extraordinary women in science.

In fact, it was this report that shocked the famous physicist. Albert Einstein was persuaded to write a letter to President franklin roosevelt, warning him of the potential harm. This effort eventually led to the establishment of the Manhattan Project. According to Sim, Matenas rejected the proposal to develop an atomic bomb. Nevertheless, after World War II, she was called "the mother of the atomic bomb", although she was not directly related to the atomic bomb.

Physicist Liz Mesner played a great role in the discovery of fission. She came to the United States on 1946 and taught at the American Catholic University in Washington for one semester. In Washington, a student was obviously far-sighted and asked her to sign. His signature speech is on display. Although Maitenaz's research is revolutionary, she is seldom praised. 1945 Hahn won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering nuclear fission. Mesner was completely ignored when he won the prize. 1966, all the collaborators Hahn, Strassman and Mesner won the American Fermi Prize for their work. Mesner retired to England on 1960, and died in Cambridge, England on127. Today, many people think that Liz Mesner is "the most important female scientist in the 20th century". Mesner is famous for his important discoveries in nuclear physics. Compared with another famous female scientist, Ian Curie,

1992, the heaviest known element in the universe 109 was named meitnerium(Mt) in memory of her.

Additional resources

Los Alamos National Laboratory: Berklee University, Maitenaz: american physical society, lise meitner: This month in the history of physics-nuclear fission was discovered.