Overview

Lise Meitner (1878-1968) was a pioneer of nuclear physics and co-discoverer, with Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, of nuclear fission. Braving the sexism of the scientific world, she joined the prestigious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry and became a prominent member of the international physics community. Of Jewish origin, Meitner fled Nazi Germany for Stockholm in 1938 and later moved to Cambridge, England. Her career was shattered when she fled Germany, and her scientific reputation was damaged when Hahn took full credit-and the 1944 Nobel Prize-for the work they had done together on nuclear fission. Ruth Sime's absorbing book is the definitive biography of Lise Meitner, the story of a brilliant woman whose extraordinary life illustrates not only the dramatic scientific progress but also the injustice and destruction that have marked the twentieth century.

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9780520208605

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""Sime has produced a magnificent biography that should help rescue Meitner from oblivion. . . . The story, especially in the lead-up to the discovery of fission by Hahn, Meitner, and Strassman, is absolutely gripping, full of twists and false dawns."" * New Scientist * ""The characters include the whole pantheon of European physicists. The several story lines of Meitner's life are carefully and smoothly interwoven, and once the war starts, the plot becomes breathtaking. . . . Meitner's story is moving, and the book is clearly a labor of love. Such labors are worth attending."" * New York Times * ""Sime has produced a thorough and intelligent treatment of an extraordinary scientist who received little of the credit she is due."" * Library Journal * ""An extraordinary and rewarding read. Sime has written the definitive biography of Lise Meitner and much more."" * Physics and Society * ""Sime provides an insider's account of the discovery of fission and the treatment of Jewish intellectuals and scientists during the rise of Nazi Germany. Her insights into the distortion of reality and memory help to explain why this extremely talented and significant contributor to atomic physics has been neglected."" * CHOICE * ""The story told by Sime is a powerful one. She not only explains how scientists went about their work in Germany during the first half of the twentieth century but how they came to grips with the tragedies of those years."" * American Historical Review * ""Sime is to be applauded for bringing to life the story of a brilliant physicist whose contributions to science and personal integrity were unparalleled.""  * San Francisco Chronicle * ""Sime has infused the writing with a passion that is both refreshing and exhilarating. This is a book that deserves to be widely read and deliberated. Its significance exceeds the boundaries of the history of nuclear physics and chemistry.""  * Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences * ""A moving, artfully detailed biography that should reestablish Lise Meitner among the greats. Sime maintains that elusive balance between scientific exposition, personal insight and political and cultural analysis that good scientific biographers strive for but seldom attain.""  * The Sciences * ""Sime has written the definitive scientific biography of Meiter, a riveting and masterful account of a scientist's steadfast devotion to physics. Sime blends the science and history with seamless ease. Sime's extensive research offers fresh insights into the devastating legacy of Nazism's distortion of the scientific truth."" * Washington Post * ""Sime has constructed here an admirable restorative of scientific credit."" * Booklist *

On the eve of WW II the physicist Lise Meitner, then living in Sweden, realized that the puzzling results reported to her by her colleagues in Berlin meant they had split the atom. Now Sime (Chemistry/Sacramento City College) tells the absorbing story of her life. Born in 1878, Meitner was a native of Vienna, enjoying the support of a loving family as she pursued not only a university education but a career in physics. As an adult Meitner converted from Judaism to Protestantism. She moved to Berlin and began doing research with the sufferance of the director of the chemistry institute: She could enter only through a side door to a basement room and was forced to use the toilet facilities of a restaurant down the street. Here began her close but curiously formal partnership with chemist Otto Hahn, later joined by Fritz Strassmann. For the technically minded, Sime provides the details of the painstaking experiments in which radioactive elements were bombarded with neutrons. In time, Meitner would gain the position and salary commensurate with her brilliance, as well as the recognition of Rutherford, Bohr, Einstein, Planck - anyone who was anybody in the pantheon of nuclear physics. But the '30s were to put an end to the collaboration, with the ever-increasing persecution of Jews (conversion did not count). Sime tells a suspenseful tale of Meitner's escape to Sweden, where she was given a place to work but essentially neither equipment nor staff to aid her. In the end it was Hahn and Strassmann who got the Nobel Prize - Hahn providing a revisionist history which does him no credit. Meitner remained loyal, if disenchanted, for the rest of her life. She spent her last years in England, dying at 90. Her epitaph, chosen by her beloved nephew Otto Frisch, was: Lise Meitner: a physicist who never lost her humanity. It is precisely that combination that Sime captures in this scrupulously researched biography. (Kirkus Reviews)

Sime has constructed here an admirable restorative of scientific credit. * Booklist * Sime has written the definitive scientific biography of Meiter, a riveting and masterful account of a scientist's steadfast devotion to physics. Sime blends the science and history with seamless ease. Sime's extensive research offers fresh insights into the devastating legacy of Nazism's distortion of the scientific truth. * Washington Post * A moving, artfully detailed biography that should reestablish Lise Meitner among the greats. Sime maintains that elusive balance between scientific exposition, personal insight and political and cultural analysis that good scientific biographers strive for but seldom attain. * The Sciences * Sime has infused the writing with a passion that is both refreshing and exhilarating. This is a book that deserves to be widely read and deliberated. Its significance exceeds the boundaries of the history of nuclear physics and chemistry. * Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences * Sime is to be applauded for bringing to life the story of a brilliant physicist whose contributions to science and personal integrity were unparalleled. * San Francisco Chronicle * The story told by Sime is a powerful one. She not only explains how scientists went about their work in Germany during the first half of the twentieth century but how they came to grips with the tragedies of those years. * American Historical Review * Sime provides an insider's account of the discovery of fission and the treatment of Jewish intellectuals and scientists during the rise of Nazi Germany. Her insights into the distortion of reality and memory help to explain why this extremely talented and significant contributor to atomic physics has been neglected. * CHOICE * An extraordinary and rewarding read. Sime has written the definitive biography of Lise Meitner and much more. * Physics and Society * Sime has produced a thorough and intelligent treatment of an extraordinary scientist who received little of the credit she is due. * Library Journal * The characters include the whole pantheon of European physicists. The several story lines of Meitner's life are carefully and smoothly interwoven, and once the war starts, the plot becomes breathtaking. . . . Meitner's story is moving, and the book is clearly a labor of love. Such labors are worth attending. * New York Times * Sime has produced a magnificent biography that should help rescue Meitner from oblivion. . . . The story, especially in the lead-up to the discovery of fission by Hahn, Meitner, and Strassman, is absolutely gripping, full of twists and false dawns. * New Scientist *

"""Sime has produced a magnificent biography that should help rescue Meitner from oblivion. . . . The story, especially in the lead-up to the discovery of fission by Hahn, Meitner, and Strassman, is absolutely gripping, full of twists and false dawns."" * New Scientist * ""The characters include the whole pantheon of European physicists. The several story lines of Meitner's life are carefully and smoothly interwoven, and once the war starts, the plot becomes breathtaking. . . . Meitner's story is moving, and the book is clearly a labor of love. Such labors are worth attending."" * New York Times * ""Sime has produced a thorough and intelligent treatment of an extraordinary scientist who received little of the credit she is due."" * Library Journal * ""An extraordinary and rewarding read. Sime has written the definitive biography of Lise Meitner and much more."" * Physics and Society * ""Sime provides an insider's account of the discovery of fission and the treatment of Jewish intellectuals and scientists during the rise of Nazi Germany. Her insights into the distortion of reality and memory help to explain why this extremely talented and significant contributor to atomic physics has been neglected."" * CHOICE * ""The story told by Sime is a powerful one. She not only explains how scientists went about their work in Germany during the first half of the twentieth century but how they came to grips with the tragedies of those years."" * American Historical Review * ""Sime is to be applauded for bringing to life the story of a brilliant physicist whose contributions to science and personal integrity were unparalleled.""  * San Francisco Chronicle * ""Sime has infused the writing with a passion that is both refreshing and exhilarating. This is a book that deserves to be widely read and deliberated. Its significance exceeds the boundaries of the history of nuclear physics and chemistry.""  * Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences * ""A moving, artfully detailed biography that should reestablish Lise Meitner among the greats. Sime maintains that elusive balance between scientific exposition, personal insight and political and cultural analysis that good scientific biographers strive for but seldom attain.""  * The Sciences * ""Sime has written the definitive scientific biography of Meiter, a riveting and masterful account of a scientist's steadfast devotion to physics. Sime blends the science and history with seamless ease. Sime's extensive research offers fresh insights into the devastating legacy of Nazism's distortion of the scientific truth."" * Washington Post * ""Sime has constructed here an admirable restorative of scientific credit."" * Booklist *"

Sime has produced a magnificent biography that should help rescue Meitner from oblivion. . . . The story, especially in the lead-up to the discovery of fission by Hahn, Meitner, and Strassman, is absolutely gripping, full of twists and false dawns. --Tania Monteiro, New Scientist

Author Information

Ruth Lewin Sime is on the chemistry faculty at Sacramento City College. She co-wrote and narrated a BBC-TV program on Lise Meitner, A Gift From Heaven, which was named one of the best science programs of the year by The Royal Society in 1992.

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