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Paper Abstract: Life & career of 20th Cent. Austrian physicist. Paper Introduction: Lise Meitner (1878-1968) overcame extraordinary odds to become one of the great physicists of the twentieth century. At a time when Austrian women were denied higher education and during a later time when Jews were persecuted and murdered, Meitner managed to obtain her doctorate and lead an extremely successful professional life. Her private life centered around her friends, many of them colleagues, and she did not marry or have, so far as is known, any romantic involvements. Politics and other circumstances denied her some of the rewards and the professional continuity that her achievement entitled her to enjoy. And, late in life, she was also distressed (even after having failed to get full credit for her role in the discovery of nuclear fission) to be identified with the development of the atomic bomb. Meitner, however, always said that she was very Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. "A Passion for Science." New York Review 44.3 (1997): 39- 42.Sime, Ruth Lewin. But the fact that she did achieve it made her one ofthe most remarkable women of any century. When she was told thatthe bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, she was "shocked beyond words" and"her friends had never seen her so distraught" (Perutz 42). Matters weremade worse after the war when she became a celebrity in America and Englandbecause she was "miscast as the Jewish refugee who escaped the Nazis withthe secret of the bomb" (Sime, "Discovery" 85). Though this was verydisturbing to her, Meitner was also pleased with the recognition that herwork had brought her. She spent the war in Stockholm and was not kept informed of progresson the bomb--though she understood its potential. It is not knownwhy she made the change but she remained interested in the "ethicalteachings of the religion" for the rest of her life (Sime, Life 32). Meitner alwaysregretted that she did not play the piano as well as some members of herfamily, but music remained one of her greatest interests throughout herlife. F. Meitner enlisted Hahn and a young analytical chemist named FritzStrassman to study the presumed "transuranics." This presumption wouldprove to be incorrect. In 19 7, unable to decide what course to take,she went to Berlin where the great physicist Max Planck allowed her tomonitor his lectures. Meitner moved to England in 196 to be with her nephew's family. Her nephew went to England towork on the physics of the atomic bomb project. Her life's work was, as her biographernotes, "more a calling than a career" and Lise Meitner derived a greatgratification and joy from her calling that few people ever experience(Sime, Life 12). But when Meitner was askedto join the Los Alamos project she refused immediately--"wanting to havenothing to do with building an atomic bomb" (Perutz 42). Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics. In Berlin she had her work,which meant more to her than anything and she was free of family pressuresto conform by marrying. In this cultured atmosphere the family also provided the groundingthat would, incredibly for those times, lead to all five daughters andthree sons to pursue higher education of some kind. Meitner respondedthat, while it did not fit known laws, she could not rule it out. Works CitedPerutz, M. "Lise Meitner and the Discovery of Nuclear Fission." Scientific American Jan. Meitner, however, always said that she wasvery satisfied with her life. On resuming her career she was promoted to professor atthe Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and made head of the physics section. Among the scientists who were her friends, herdevotion to physics did not seem so unusual. She escapedto Holland where she was fortunate not to secure a position since she wouldhave been captured by the Germans a short time later. First Gisela Meitner passed the exam, and enteredmedical school in 19 , and then Lise, who had already completed a teachertraining course, began, in 1899, to "compress eight missing school yearsinto two: Greek and Latin, mathematics and physics, botany, zoology,mineralogy, psychology, logic, religion, German literature, history" (Sime,Life 9). As he recalled in hismemoir, they walked in the snow and discussed the problem of how thenucleus of the uranium could possibly have broken up. She was included as a member of the family,for instance, in the circles of James Franck and Planck himself. It was from Boltzmann that Meitner acquired her greatcommitment to physics and her approach. Meitner herself converted to the Lutheran faith in 19 8, the sameyear that her two older sisters converted to Catholicism. Though her career was brieflyinterrupted when she volunteered as an X-ray technician in World War I,Meitner, finally horrified by the suffering on the Russian front, returnedto work in Berlin. At a time when Austrianwomen were denied higher education and during a later time when Jews werepersecuted and murdered, Meitner managed to obtain her doctorate and leadan extremely successful professional life. She entered the University of Vienna in 19 1, originally planningto study mathematics. But her devotion to physics was supplemented by her intensefriendships with her fellow scientists and their families--people whounderstood her unusual life. Yet Philipp Meitner never converted, althoughdiscrimination was very strong in the legal profession and "conversion wasstill a passport to judgeships and other civil service positions" (Sime,Life 6). The Meitners were a secular Jewishfamily who took no interest in the religion beyond registering the childrenwith the Jewish community. But Meitner, who had already done substantive workon her own, also needed to begin working. This was, as Hahnwrote to Meitner, "a frightful result," and he asked her for someexplanation from physics since, as they all knew, elements could not simplybreak up like this (quoted in Sime, "Discovery" 84). She met the chemist Otto Hahnand teamed with him to study radioactivity. She and Hahnwere the same age and he had begun his career before she did, yet there wasonly a five-year lag between his and her establishment as section heads.Meitner took this as a sign of "recognition, trust, and professional coming-of-age" and was in a position of great prominence in the early years of themost exciting period in the history of physics (Sime, Life 79). In 1912 Hahn became a full professor--appointed director of hisown section at the new Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry--and Meitnerwas hire as Planck's assistant. During these years Meitner formed many lifelong friendships among thescientists she met in Berlin. "Meitner's goal in physics wouldbe theoretical understanding; her means, nearly always, would beexperiment" (17). The universities began to accept a few women at the end ofthe century, but since girls could not attend high schools (more like acombination of high school and college education) they had to studyprivately to pass the Matura, an examination certifying their preparednessfor the university. Visiting her nephew Otto Robert Frisch, another physicist in exile inSweden, Meitner presented the problem to him. But, as theworld was to discover, it was Meitner's theory (as built upon by Niels Bohrand others) that was to be most significant. Lise Meitner (1878-1968) overcame extraordinary odds to become one ofthe great physicists of the twentieth century. And, late in life,she was also distressed (even after having failed to get full credit forher role in the discovery of nuclear fission) to be identified with thedevelopment of the atomic bomb. The two scientistscomplemented each other and "soon made their names" by discovering two newradioactive elements and "two different mechanisms leading to the emissionof beta rays" (Perutz 39). In 191 , shortly after her father's death,Meitner had written that she was sometimes disturbed by the "frightfulegotism" of a life in which ""everything I do benefits only me, my ambitionand my pleasure in scientific research" and disturbed that she might not be"connected with others"--fearing that in her intellectual freedom she wouldbe "of use to no one" and that this would be "the worst loneliness of all"(quoted in Sime, Life 39-4 ). Strassman and Hahn identified it as barium. But, in the meantime, Meitner, previously protectedby her Austrian passport, was in danger from the Nazi state. Meitner was born in Vienna, the third of the eight children of Hedwigand Peter, a middle-class lawyer. Meitner was particularly interested in the work being done by EnricoFermi in Rome. In spite of all the hindrances, injusticesand misinterpretations, she had, as no one would have believed possible,lived a life devoted to physics. Her private life centeredaround her friends, many of them colleagues, and she did not marry or have,so far as is known, any romantic involvements. The 1944 Nobel prize for Chemistry was awarded to Hahn alone.Recently released notes of the deliberations of the committee showed thatthey had misunderstood Meitner's contribution and regarded only thediscovery of the barium produced by uranium as significant. At the same time, Hahn and Strassman--unable to acknowledge Meitner as their full partner--published theirfindings on barium. The family, though not rich, was able to provide all the necessarybooks, schooling and music lessons their children required. She had confirmed most of the results of Fermi's project of"using neutrons to bombard elements throughout the periodic table," but theresults of the bombardment of uranium puzzled her because they produced anumber of unknown beta emitters that had none of the chemical properties ofuranium nor of any of the elements most similar to it (Sime, "Discovery"81). In letters to Berlin, however, she persuaded Hahn and Strassman--anti-Nazis who secretly corresponded with her--to reinvestigate the findings ofIrene Curie (Marie Curie's daughter) and Pavel Savitch who, ignoring thetransuranic assumption, identified an element in the by-products of uraniumbombardment that behaved chemically as if it was a much lighter radioactiveelement. Shevisited her family in Vienna often and felt most at home there, but, as shesaid, "nevertheless I know that leaving home was in certain respects asalvation for me" (quoted in Sime, Life 38). Instead she went onto Sweden where she found herself at 59 "stranded, without money,equipment, or collaborators, in a country whose language she could notspeak" (Perutz 4 ). But, when she switched to physics, Meitner had thegood fortune to become the student of the great theoretical physicistLudwig Boltzmann. Fromthe very first Meitner had faced numerous hindrances and instances ofprofessional discourtesy because of her gender. Berkeley: U of California P, 1996.---. But it is a true sign ofher great seriousness and extraordinary talents that, remarkably for thetimes, "her academic career does not seem to have been seriously hamperedeither by her sex or by her being born Jewish" (Perutz 39). Shehad lived an unusual life, especially, in the first half of the century,for a woman. Politics and othercircumstances denied her some of the rewards and the professionalcontinuity that her achievement entitled her to enjoy. 1998: 8 -85. But when Lise Meitnerwas nearly 14 she had gone as far as it was possible for Austrian girls togo in school. But not much work of this type could be carried out alone and, afterreceiving her doctorate in 19 6, Meitner faced the very real prospect ofnever working at physics. In the space of anafternoon Meitner worked out the theoretical interpretation and, when sheand Frisch published the theory in England they suggested the word"fission," adapted from biology. She also flourished professionally. During her first six years in Berlin neitherMeitner nor Hahn was paid a salary and both were supported by theirfamilies. But Meitner always managed to maintain herfreedom while filling the rest of her life with friendships--a difficultbalance to achieve. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.