Early 1939, the scientist of the world learned that German scientist had discovered a way to spit a uranium atom, created
Born in 1912, Chien-Shiung Wu was an overlooked physician who broke a law of physics when contributing to the Manhattan Project in the 40’s! She helped in developing the atom bomb at Columbia University, and ”became known as one of the best experimental physicists of her time”-According to Nina Byers, a retired Physics professor who taught at University of California in Los Angeles.
The pioneering work of Becquerel in 1896 (the discovery of uranium), and the Curies (who subsequently discovered radium and polonium and the energy and heat given off by these new elements which they called radioactivity) led to the remarkable work of Ernest Rutherford. He was a physicist, whose experiments showed that some heavier elements spontaneously changed or decayed into lighter elements (unstable 'parent' elements giving off protons and neutrons to form a 'daughter' element) through the process of radioactivity. He discovered that radioactive materials decay at a very predictable rate, and that lead was the final decay product of uranium. Using Rutherford's ideas, Bertram Boltwood pioneered a method of radiometric dating in 1907. He hypothesized that since he knew how long it takes uranium to break down, he could measure the proportions of lead in uranium ores, and use his calculations to date how long those ores had existed,
Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) succeeded in splitting the uranium atom and the Nobel Committee later awarded him the 1938 prize for physics. At Columbia
I chose to do my project on Marie Curie, the woman who discovered radium and polonium. She was born Mary Sklodowska on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland and died July 4, 1934 in Passy, France at the age of 67. In 1895, Marie married a professor named Pierre Curie at the age of 26. She was the first woman to complete a doctorate in France in MMMM at the age xxx. And in MMMMM, Curie was also the first female professor at the Sorbonne. She was the first person to use the term “radioactivity”, which is the term still used till this day.
The origin of nuclear medicine can be traced all the way back to the invention of the cyclotron by the late great Dr. Ernest Orlando Lawrence. Lawrence, who died 1958, worked at the University of California at Berkeley. He, according to Jeffrey Kahn, he was basically just trying to make new atoms by combining them in an accelerator when his little brother John suggest they use the machine for medicine. John, who also attended Berkley, started by
Scientists Who Invented the Atomic Bomb under the Manhattan Project: Robert Oppenheimer, David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Otto Frisch, Rudolf Peierls, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs and Edward Teller. View a copy of the letter Einstein wrote Roosevelt that prompted the Manhattan Project.
One of the scientists that was involved was Enrico Fermi. Fermi was the first to make contact with the U.S. about the Germans starting to experiment with fission. Then Albert Einstein, who was a German physicist who escaped Germany to come to the U.S., eventually persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt to start a program around nuclear fission to combat German efforts. Additionally, American scientist Philip Hauge Abelson created a uranium separation process that was necessary is making the atomic bomb.
When Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896, it inspired Marie and Pierre to investigate it further. They researched a lot of substances for any signs of radioactivity, and discovered something that was more radioactive than uranium. They discovered radium, an element that damaged tissue, so they used that to fight against cancer. “They found that the mineral pitchblende was more radioactive than uranium and concluded that it must contain other radioactive substances. From it they managed to extract two previously unknown elements, polonium and radium, both more radioactive than uranium” (Nobel Media). These discoveries led to radium being used to treat cancer and other diseases, and them getting their first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. After Pierre passed away, she continued with her own studies. Marie successfully isolated radium and proved its existence. She also studied the properties and compounds of these radioactive elements. “She also documented the properties of the radioactive elements and their compounds. Radioactive compounds became important as sources of radiation in both scientific experiments and in the field of medicine, where they are used to treat tumors” (Nobel Media). This discovery led to the further development of X-rays and her receiving her second Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. Marie Curie was the first woman ever to win two Nobel Prizes in two fields and in multiple sciences, two incredible
"Early in 1939, the world's scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting a uranium atom. Fears soon spread over the possibility of Nazi scientists utilizing that energy to produce a bomb capable of unspeakable destruction." (UShistory.org). This discovery pushed our nuclear programs into high gear and pushed us into the nuclear age. Many scientists were needed to make this project happen so the U.S. used Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi. Other brilliant minds
This discovery of the process of fission in uranium was made in 1938 by German radiochemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann. The enormous energy released when uranium atom splits was enough to power a bomb and two other findings in 1940 and 1941 had established the bomb was achievable and practical and the building of the bomb was made a priority by the United States. Investigation and testing to determine the critical
The United States government was shocked by the news of German scientists discovering nuclear fission. The news came to the United States from Albert Einstein. Einstein found out the nuclear fission information from a German physicist named Leo Szilard. He then told it to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and urged him to start an investment toward atomic research. The research would then help construct an atomic weapon of mass destruction. Roosevelt was not especially concerned about investing in atomic weapon research because he didn 't plan on getting involved in the War.
During the early 1940’s atomic science had just began to mature. Many people were exploring the powerful mystery of the atom. Two of those people were Eugene Booth and John Dunning, who, in 1941, synthesized uranium-235. Immense scientific growth followed their contribution, since it allowed for nuclear fission (Griffith). In the years following this discovery, nuclear science took a turn. Once only used as a constructive power source, atoms began being explored for their destructive power. In 1942 the United States government funded the Manhattan Project that sole goal was to develop a nuclear bomb. The initiator for this endeavor was surprisingly the famous scientist Albert Einstein. He wrote to Franklin D. Roosevelt , and tipped him off
Jane Hall was an American physicist born in 1915 at a small town outside Denver Colorado. Shortly after receiving her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago in 1942, Hall became a research assistant at the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory. Her reputation like so many other determined female scientist of the time proved an excellent scientist and administrator earning her a position as a Senior Supervisor at Hanford less than a year later. At Hanford, in addition to her normal duties, she led several studies that uncovered information about the effects of plutonium inhalation on the human body. After the war, Hall and her husband, David Hall, moved to Los Alamos to work for Los Alamos National Laboratory. She was a firm believer in the
Nuclear knowledge has existed for a long time. Nuclear Engineering U.S. Department of Energy relates, ―By 1900, the physicists knew the atom contains large quantities of energy‖ (par 11). Many others formed good theories, such as Ernest Rutherford and Einstein’s contribution with his equation E=mc^2. In 1934