Lise Meitner

What happens when you split the heart of an atom? Lise Meitner helped answer that question. Lise Meitner (1878–1968) was an Austrian-born physicist who worked in the early 20th century. She is best known for explaining nuclear fission - how a heavy atom can split into smaller parts and release a vast amount of energy.

She worked with chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin, but as a Jewish scientist she had to flee Nazi Germany in 1938 and continued her work in Sweden. From there she and her nephew Otto Frisch worked out the theory that explained Hahn and Strassmann's experiments. In 1939 they showed how the atomic nucleus could split; Frisch used the word 'fission.'

This discovery changed science and the world: it led to nuclear power that makes electricity and also to powerful weapons. Meitner refused to help build bombs and believed science should help people. Although her ideas were central, the 1944 Nobel Prize went to Otto Hahn alone - a choice many later questioned.

Lise Meitner's story is about curiosity, courage, and conscience. She opened doors for women in science, and today scientists remember her for brilliant thinking and bravery. Her life shows how science can change the world - and how people can choose to use knowledge wisely.