Discovery of nuclear fission
Videos
Nuclear fission was discovered in December 1938 by chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann and physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Robert Frisch. Fission is a nuclear reaction or radioactive decay proces
The periodic table c. 1930
Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner in 1912
Irène Curie and Frédéric Joliot in their Paris laboratory in 1935
Enrico Fermi and his research group (the Via Panisperna boys), c. 1934. Left to right: Oscar D'Agostino, Emilio Segrè, Edoardo Amaldi, Franco Rasetti and Fermi
Nazi Germany undertook several research programs relating to nuclear technology, including nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, before and during World War II. These were variously called Uranverein
Discovery of nuclear fission
…Hahn was taken into custody and incarcerated at Farm Hall with nine other senior scientists, all of whom except Max von Laue had been involved with the German nuclear weapons program, and all except Hahn and Paul Harteck were physicists. It was here that they heard the news of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unwilling…
Bundesarchiv Bild 183 R57262, Werner Heisenberg crop
Bundesarchiv Bild 183 2005 0331 501, Paul Harteck
Bothe
UMHK 1917