The Woman Who Split the Atom: The Life of Lise Meitner

 Moss, Marissa. The Woman Who Split the Atom: The Life of Lise Meitner. 2022. 264p. ISBN 9781419758539.

From a young age, Austrian Lise Meitner was fascinated by science, and she was especially attracted to physics. Encourage by her father to study science despite the fact that girls did not attend high school, much less university, Lise persevered and fought against prejudices to eventually gain admission at the University, where she earned a doctorate in physics in the early 20th century. 

Her talent and grasp of physics allowed her to remain in an otherwise all male field, and she secured a teaching position in Germany, albeit at a much lower salary than her colleagues. Regardless, Lise was never happier than working in her own lab, conducting experiments. She had several discoveries and published numerous papers in the 1910s and 1920s, but by the 1930s, restrictions on Jews in Germany severely constrained her work. In 1938 she escaped Germany and arrived in Sweden, where she settled for the rest of her life.

Still working with German colleagues, Lise discovered nuclear fission in mid 1938, following her escape. This proved Einstein's theory, and revolutionized the field of nuclear physics. This discovery was ascribed to a male colleague of hers, however, who eventually won the Nobel prize for something Lise had done. The possibility of splitting atoms to create energy was a step forward in the development of humanity, but it came with the very real fear that it could also be used as a weapon. Lise supported nuclear energy for power, but was aghast at the idea that Germany would build a nuclear weapon. 

The destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945 horrified Lise , who was even named the mother of the bomb in the press. Over the years, Lise was nominated 19 times for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and 30 times for the Nobel Prize in Physics, but never received it. Her gender and her religion continued to affect her for the rest of her life. An assumed pacifist, Lise continued to study and teach physics for the rest of her life.