Otto Hahn: Nuclear Fission

Science Datebook: March 8

Otto Hahn discovered nuclear fission

Otto Hahn (1879-1968), German radio chemist and Nobel Prize winner, is born on March 8, 1879, in Frankfurt, Germany, and died July 28, 1968, in Gottingen, Germany. He discovered nuclear fission, in particular, the split of uranium atom into barium and krypton.

Hahn was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in chemistry, and shared the 1966 Enrico Fermi Award. He was involved in the discovery of several new radio elements, among them radiothorium, radioactinium and mesothorioum.


His best-known research was on the irradiation of uranium and thorium with neutrons. This work, initially in association with physicist Lise Meitner and later with Fritz Strassmann, led to the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, and to his 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.


Trivia:

Otto Hahn was greatly upset upon realization that his discovery led to the horrendous bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result, it's alleged that he became a die-hard opponent of nuclear weapons.



Resources:

•  Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers (2003)

• The Little book of Scientific Principles, Theories & Things, by Surendra Verma, NH (2005)

Image Credit:

Otto Hahn in 1944,  Wiki Commons.


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