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Lise Meitner
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===Friedrich Wilhelm University=== [[File:Hahn and Meitner in 1912.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn in 1912]] Encouraged and backed by her father's financial support, Meitner entered the [[Humboldt University of Berlin|Friedrich Wilhelm University]] in [[Berlin]], where the renowned physicist [[Max Planck]] taught. Planck invited her to his home, and allowed her to attend his lectures. This was an unusual gesture by Planck, who was on record as opposing the admission of women to universities in general, but apparently recognised Meitner as an exception.{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=24–26}} She became friends with Planck's twin daughters Emma and Grete, who were born in 1889, and shared Meitner's love of music.{{sfn|Sime|1996|p=38}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Max Planck – a biographical overview |publisher=Max-Planck Gesellschaft |url=https://www.mpg.de/19252700/max-planck-biographical-overview |access-date=16 July 2024 |archive-date=16 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716220806/https://www.mpg.de/19252700/max-planck-biographical-overview |url-status=live }}</ref> Attending Planck's lectures did not take up all her time, and Meitner approached [[Heinrich Rubens]], the head of the experimental physics institute, about doing some research. Rubens said that he would be happy for her to work in his laboratory. He also added that [[Otto Hahn]] at the chemistry institute was looking for a physicist to collaborate with. A few minutes later she was introduced to Hahn. He had studied radioactive substances under [[William Ramsay]] and Ernest Rutherford, and was already credited with the discovery of what were then thought to be several new radioactive elements.{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=26–27}}{{sfn|Hahn|1966|p=50}}{{efn|In fact, they were [[isotope]]s of known elements, but the concept of an isotope, along with the term, was only propounded by [[Frederick Soddy]] in 1913.{{sfn|Hughes|2008|pp=134–135}} }} Hahn was the same age as Meitner, and she noted his informal and approachable manner.{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=26–27}}{{sfn|Hahn|1966|p=50}} In Montreal, Hahn had become accustomed to collaboration with physicists—including at least one woman, [[Harriet Brooks]].{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=28–29}} [[File:Otto Hahn und Lise Meitner.jpg|thumb|left|Meitner and Hahn in their laboratory, in 1913. When a colleague she did not recognise said that they had met before, Meitner replied: "You probably mistake me for Professor Hahn."{{sfn|Hahn|1966|p=66}}]] The head of the chemistry institute, [[Emil Fischer]], placed a former woodworking shop ({{lang|de|Holzwerkstatt}}) at Hahn's disposal in the basement to use as a laboratory. Hahn equipped it with [[electroscope]]s to measure alpha and [[beta particle]]s and [[gamma rays]]. It was not possible to conduct research in the wood shop, but [[Alfred Stock]], the head of the inorganic chemistry department, let Hahn use a space in one of his two private laboratories.{{sfn|Hahn|1966|p=52}} Like Meitner, Hahn was unpaid, and lived off an allowance from his father, although somewhat larger than hers. He completed his [[habilitation]] in early 1907, and became a {{lang|de|[[Privatdozent]]}}.{{sfn|Stolz|1989|p=20}} Most of the organic chemists at the chemistry institute did not regard Hahn's work—detecting minute traces of [[isotope]]s too small to see, weigh or smell through their radioactivity—as real chemistry.{{sfn|Hahn|1966|p=50}} One department head remarked that "it is incredible what one gets to be a {{lang|de|Privatdozent}} these days!"{{sfn|Hahn|1966|p=50}} Lise Meitner helped discover the radioactive element [[protactinium]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.epa.gov/radtown/women-radiation-history-lise-meitner | title=Women in Radiation History: Lise Meitner | date=7 January 2021 }}</ref> The arrangement was difficult for Meitner at first. Women were not yet admitted to universities in the [[States of the German Empire|German state]] of the [[Kingdom of Prussia]], which included Berlin. Meitner was allowed to work in the wood shop, which had its own external entrance, but she could not enter the rest of the institute, including Hahn's laboratory space upstairs. If she wanted to go to the toilet, she had to use one at the restaurant down the street. The following year, women were admitted to Prussian universities, and Fischer lifted the restrictions, and had women's toilets installed in the building. Not all the chemists were happy about this.{{sfn|Sime|1996|pp=28–29}} The Institute of Physics was more accepting, and she became friends with the physicists there, including {{ill|Otto von Baeyer|de}}, [[James Franck]], [[Gustav Hertz]], [[Robert Pohl]], Max Planck, {{ill|Peter Pringsheim|de}} and [[Wilhelm Westphal]].{{sfn|Hahn|1966|p=65}} During the first years Meitner worked with Hahn, they co-authored nine papers: three in 1908 and six in 1909. Together with Hahn, she discovered and developed a physical separation method known as [[atomic recoil|radioactive recoil]], in which a [[daughter nucleus]] is forcefully ejected as it recoils at the moment of decay. While Hahn was more concerned with discovering new elements (now known to be isotopes), Meitner was more interested in understanding their radiation. She observed that radioactive recoil, which had been discovered by Harriet Brooks in 1904, could be a new way of detecting radioactive substances. They soon discovered two more new isotopes, bismuth-211 and thallium-207.{{sfn|Hahn|1966|pp=58–64}}<ref>{{cite web |first=Dava |last=Dava Sobel |author-link=Dava Sobel |date=2 July 2020 |title=Harriet Brooks |publisher=Linda Hall Library |url=https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/harriet-brooks/ |access-date=21 July 2024 |archive-date=21 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240721212403/https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/harriet-brooks/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Brooks |first=H. A. |author-link=Harriet Brooks |title=A Volatile Product from Radium |journal=Nature |issn=0028-0836 |volume=70 |issue=1812 |page=270 |date=21 July 1904 |doi=10.1038/070270b0 |bibcode=1904Natur..70..270B }}</ref> Meitner was particularly interested in beta particles. By this time, they were known to be [[electron]]s. Alpha particles were emitted with characteristic energy, and she expected that this would be true of beta particles too. Hahn and Meitner carefully measured the absorption of beta particles by aluminium, but the results were puzzling. In 1914, [[James Chadwick]] found that electrons emitted from the nucleus formed a continuous spectrum, but Meitner found this hard to believe, as it seemed to contradict [[quantum physics]], which held that electrons in an atom can only occupy discrete energy states (quanta).{{sfn|Watkins|1983|pp=551–553}} {{Clear}}
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