Nuclear Fission Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn & Leo Szilard Lina Brouse and Kelly Scott

Lise Meitner D.O.B 7 November October 1968  from Vienna, Austria  head of the dept. of Physics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (in the basement)  For decades she collaborated closely with Otto Hahn, with whom she co-discovered protactinium in 1917  (1938) After fleeing from the Nazis she worked at the Nobel Physical Institute in Stockholm where she realized she had split an uranium nucleus, calling it fission  Eventually opened the doors for making atomic bombs

Otto Hahn D.O.B. 28 July July 1968  Born in Frankfurt am Main, German Empire  Met Meitner in 1907 and helped her escape to safety in the Netherlands(1938)  Also worked with Fritz Strassmann (bottom right)  Received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry from his discoveries of nuclear fission

Leó Szilárd D.O.B. February 11, May 30, 1964  Born in Budapest, Hungary  Didn’t work with Hahn and Meitner, but with Enrico Fermi (bottom right)  was a part of the Manhattan Project in creating atomic bombs  was the co-inventor with Enrico Fermi of the first nuclear reactor

Nuclear Fission  Nuclear fission is the reaction from a subatomic particle hitting a larger isotope, causing the nucleus of the isotope to split, resulting in the release of energy.  Along with the energy, the reaction creates more isotopes to be released, causing a chain reaction.  Nuclear fission could be man-made or found in nature as a form of radioactive decay

Nuclear Fission (cont.)  Fission is also a form of transmutation  Barium was found to be a product of nuclear fission with uranium.  Nuclear Fission may give off a good, dense amount of energy, but it gives off more radioactivity  In order for nuclear fission to take place, there must be a large amount of the substance and it must have high speed neutrons.

Contributions  Otto Hahn first discovered Barium-141, while working on the effects of neutrons involving Uranium-235.  This lead Lise Meitner to work with the neutron bombardment which resulted in her discovery that fission generated a great amount of energy in emitted.  She also discovered the chain reaction from the fission.

Contributions (cont.)  Leó Szilárd also became aware of this chain reaction using uranium and thought of how this energy and reaction could be put to use like a nuclear reactor or atomic bombs.  He also worked with Albert Einstein to help President Franklin Roosevelt with an atomic bomb in WWII