Ruth Lewin Sime

Author Sime has done an excellent job of providing us with a biography of Lise Meitner, one of the most important physicists in 20th century science. Lise Meitner discovered nuclear fission and it was her finding, reported in a scientific journal, which sparked the drive for the construction of the atomic bomb. As with the rest of her book, the author’s explanations of the science are well written and easy to follow…and now for the bad part. Lise Meitner’s life was hell. She was a woman enamored of science at a time when women were banned from practicing science in any capacity. Barriers against her participation faced her at every turn, and her life became one of fighting to do what she loved - science - and fighting for the right to do that science. In addition to everything else, she was Jewish in Germany at a time that made living there extremely dangerous. As a result, at crucial juncture of her work in 1938, she had to flee and her co-worker, Otto Hahn got all the credit – including a Nobel Prize. True, in later life her work was widely recognized but, in this reviewer’s opinion, the recognition was too little too late.

As I said at the beginning of this review -the book is well written, however, the details are such that I would recommend you be in a very cheerful frame of mind when you start reading this book because it is grim.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of science, history of women in science, or just history in general.… (meer)