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in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

The "Lost Women of Science" podcast just did a 2 part episode about her, part of their "Lost Women of the Manhattan Project" series.

(transcripts available)

Part 1: https://www.lostwomenofscience.org/season-6-episodes/lise-meitner

Part 2: https://www.lostwomenofscience.org/season-6-episodes/why-did-lise-meitner-never-receive-the-nobel-prize-for-splitting-the-atom-part-2

#Science #History #Women #Podcast #ManhattanProject

This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I do have one small quibble with the NYT piece. The headline calls Meitner the “Mother of the Atomic Bomb.”

No. Meitner helped discover nuclear fission & foresaw its dangerous potential. BUT she refused to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, famously declaring, “I will have nothing to do with a bomb!”

Her gravestone reads, “Lise Meitner: a physicist who never lost her humanity.” /2

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Yay!

I went to Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium (grade 5-13 school) and next to us was Lise-Meitner-Realschule (grade 5-10 school). There was a big split atom in front, made of stone.

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Clearly Meitner took issue with this label. Using it in a headline, even with scare quotes, perpetuates the disservice done to her.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

🎶 warmongery is not my lover
it's just a bomb that thinks that I am it's mum
but the fatboy's not my son 🎶
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I was peeved by the lack of recognition afforded her but did not know I should also be peeved by the headline (and the source for it). Now I’m twice peeved. Thank you.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

the article is clear, but the headline really did muff it
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

it is a huge question. She’s the forebear in the sense that her work led proximally to its construction. So can we make things with a range of purposes and be held accountable when a predictable destructive use is created from it. Some of us have analogous things like that in our work so it’s something to think about. Not so easy if I’m honest.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

we will be talking about this quite a bit when we visit my physicist MIL for her upcoming 103 bday.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I'm glad I added Lise Meitner to my physics course after the last time you mentioned her. This year I have my first ever all girl physics class!
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

thank you for sharing that. Reading a biography of Meitner when I was in my early 20s was transformative.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

yes. It was a serious omission from the Oppenheimer film and, of course, from much of the history of nuclear science.

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