Today I want to talk to you about the last book I read. It’s “Women Scientist: Hidden in History” by Cynthia O’Brien, where she could find out and write about amazing women in history. I confess that most of the women that this book mentions, I didn’t know about them and the significant contributions they made. This book separates the information for each continent: Europe, America, Africa and, Asia, and Australia.
It’s important to remember that all these women lived in a time where access to university was challenging, and they didn’t have the same men’s rights.
Lise Meitner
I will start in Europe where in 1878 born Lise Meitner, an Austrian-Swedish physicist who contributed to the discoveries of the element protactinium and nuclear fission. She spent two years trying to pass the entrance exam to study at the University of Vienna, and in February 1906, Lisa became the second woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics. Despite this, it was too difficult for her to find a job until 1907 where she meets the physicist Max Planck. For her study and work, Lise moved to Berlín, where she began working with the chemist Otto Hahn and become the first women to have the title professor. Unfortunately, in 1938 Lise’s work was cut short as life for German Jews became very difficult. She hurriedly traveled to the Netherlands; months later, she arrives in Sweden.
I will start in Europe where in 1878 born Lise Meitner, an Austrian-Swedish physicist who contributed to the discoveries of the element protactinium and nuclear fission. She spent two years trying to pass the entrance exam to study at the University of Vienna, and in February 1906, Lisa became the second woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics. Despite this, it was too difficult for her to find a job until 1907 where she meets the physicist Max Planck. For her study and work, Lise moved to Berlín, where she began working with the chemist Otto Hahn and become the first women to have the title professor. Unfortunately, in 1938 Lise’s work was cut short as life for German Jews became very difficult. She hurriedly traveled to the Netherlands; months later, she arrives in Sweden.
In Sweden, she wanted to keep up with Otto’s work in Berlín, they wrote to each other in secret, and they discovered nuclear fission. Otto wrote papers in Germany supporting her work, but he no included Lise’s name to protect her from the Nazis. She was put forward for the Nobel Prize 48 times during her career, but Lisa never won. In 1944 Otto Hahn won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for “his” discovery of nuclear fission. Several scientists and journalists have called her exclusion “unjust.”
Finally, the science community recognized her work in 1966. Lise, Otto, and Fritz Strassmann received the Enrico Fermi Prize from the U.S Atomic Energy Commission. Meitner died in her sleep on 27 October 1968 at the age of 89.
Lise is one of many amazing women I discovered in this book; I chose some of them that I want to share their stories with you. Let me know in the comments if you knew about her, see you in the next post.
