Why Don’t We Talk Much About These Female Physicists
The incredible stories of Cecilia Payne and Lise Meitner
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
“Young people, especially young women, often ask me for advice. Here it is. Do not undertake a scientific career in quest of fame or money. There are easier and better ways to reach them. Undertake it only if nothing else will satisfy you; for nothing else is probably what you will receive. Your reward will be the widening of the horizon as you climb. And if you achieve that reward you will ask no other.”
― Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
Cecilia Payne was born on May 10th, 1981 in England. After her High School graduation in 1919, she won a scholarship to Cambridge University to study science. Unsure of what science she should choose, she attended a lecture by astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington and observation of Einstein’s general theory of relativity is what triggered her interest in Astronomy.
She completed her studies at the University but was not awarded the degree because of her gender. It was after 1948 when Cambridge University started awarding degree grants to female students. In 1923, Cecilia moved to the United States where she was awarded a Fellowship to study at the college observatory at Harvard University. There she met the director of the college observatory who encouraged her to write a doctoral dissertation and in 1925 she became the first person to a Ph.D. in Astronomy. Her doctoral thesis was titled Stellar Atmospheres; A Contribution to the Observational Study of High Temperature in the Reversing Layers of Stars. The thesis is considered to be the most significant dissertation in the field of astronomy. At the time scientists believed that the sun was made of heavy elements. But Cecilia proved everyone wrong. By applying the ionization theory of Meghnad Shah, she was able to accurately associate structural classes of stars to their actual temperatures. Her studies concluded that the Sun is primarily composed of hydrogen (and helium) and so is the universe. This notion wasn’t accepted at the time and hence she received a lot of criticism for her works.
Astronomer Henry Russell was one of many prolific astronomers and scientists who denied her idea. Later, upon independent research by him, he found similar results as Payne which he published in 1929 with complete acknowledgment of Payne’s works and her discovery.
Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner is one of the leading scientific figures in the field of radioactivity and nuclear physics. She was born in 1878 and was extremely fascinated by science and mathematics ever since she was a kid. In 1901 Meitner got admitted to the University of Vienna, though at the time the University didn’t allow the academic registration of women. She started taking classes in physics and mathematics, including the lectures by physicist Ludwig Boltzmann.
Meitner completed her dissertation titled Wärmeleitung in inhomogenen Körpern (“Thermal Conduction in Inhomogeneous Bodies”) in 1906 making her one of the first women to receive a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Vienna. The first was awarded to Olga Steindler in 1903. She then went to the Friedrich Wilhelm University where she came across physicist Max Planck. She often attended Planck’s lectures even though Planck was against the tradition of admitting women at the University. Meitner, for him, stood out as an exception. In fact, after almost a year of attending Planck’s lectures, Meitner went on to become his assistant. In the same institute, Meitner met Heinrich Rubens, the man who did the energy calculation for Planck in the research of black-body radiation law that led to the development of the foundation of Quantum mechanics. Rubens introduced her to Otto Hahn, who then was the head of the chemistry department and was looking for a physicist to work within his lab.
Meitner didn’t lose the chance. She started working with Otto Hahn and did several monumental discoveries associated with chemical isotopes, beta and gamma rays. In 1914 with the beginning of the First World War Meitner went on to work as a nurse in Vienna where was being held in the position of an x-ray technician in the hospital. In 1917 she returned to the Institute and started working on higher element isotopes. It was at that time that she had significant contributions to the discovery of the element protactinium. She continued to make important discoveries in physics and chemistry. She also made important contributions in discovering atomic particles assisting James Chadwick who would go on to discover the neutron, an elementary sub-atomic particle present in the nucleus of an atom. By 1926 she was holding the professorship of physics at the University of Berlin. She was the first woman in Germany to get this post which is inspirational in its way as during that time seeing women at such positions was rare and Meitner became an exemplary figure for all the women interested in the field of physics.
In 1933, after the arrival of Nazis in power in Germany, Meitner had to leave the country as her family members were part of an important Jewish community there. In 1938, with the help of her colleagues, she fled to the Netherlands. After some time, she started working in a physics laboratory in Stockholm and established good bonding with physicist Niels Bohr. She also collaborated with other prominent German scientists including her nephew Otto Frisch. These collaborations led to multiple research experiments in splitting heavier nuclei of atoms and ultimately led to the discovery of an important phenomenon in nuclear physics called the fission reaction. Nuclear fission is the process of splitting a heavier nucleus into daughter nuclei with the release of an intense amount of energy. Unfortunately, the discovery of nuclear fission resulted in the creation of the world’s first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. Even Meitner was invited to work on the project which she denied. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, Meitner was pretty disappointed by the fact that she had contributions to the development of nuclear fission reaction. In 1944, Hahn and Fritz Strassman won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering the fission process. The prize wasn’t shared between Hahn and Meitner despite her contributions.
“Science makes people reach selflessly for truth and objectivity; it teaches people to accept reality, with wonder and admiration, not to mention the deep awe and joy that the natural order of things brings to the true scientist.”
― Lise Meitner
She’s had more contributions in the field of nuclear physics than many other prominent and famous physicists. It was scientists like Meitner and Payne and Chien-Shiung Wu and Curie and several others who inspired generations of people to pursue science. They initiated the tradition of females to join the science and scientific community for good and now we have several significant female figures working actively in the field of physics. They stand as true inspiration for all of us but unfortunately they aren’t talked about as much in the mainstream media. We get to learn the biographies of Einstein and Feynman and Newton, but not about these female physicists. I believe that the students should be taught about these women in the field of science, about how they overcame the obstacles of male-dominated scientific community of the nineteenth century.
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