- Born:
- March 8, 1879, Frankfurt am Main, Ger.
- Died:
- July 28, 1968, Göttingen, W.Ger. (aged 89)
- Awards And Honors:
- Nobel Prize (1944)
- Subjects Of Study:
- nuclear fission
- protactinium-231
- radioactivity
- radiothorium
Otto Hahn
-
Who was Otto Hahn?
Otto Hahn (1879-1968) was a German chemist renowned for his pivotal role in discovering nuclear fission. Working with radiochemist Fritz Strassmann, Hahn's experiments in 1938 revealed that bombarding uranium with neutrons split the atom into lighter elements, notably barium.
His colleague Lise Meitner, who had to flee Nazi Germany, collaborated with her nephew Otto Frisch to elucidate and name this process. Hahn was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this groundbreaking discovery. After the war, he advocated against nuclear weapons.
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What field of science did Otto Hahn work in?
Otto Hahn was a German chemist who worked in the field of radiochemistry. He is known for discovering nuclear fission with radiochemist Fritz Strassmann. Nuclear fission is the splitting of a heavy atomic nucleus, such as uranium or plutonium, into two smaller nuclei, a process that releases a large amount of energy. Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 for this discovery.
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What important scientific discovery is Otto Hahn famous for?
Otto Hahn, a German chemist, is renowned for his discovery of nuclear fission with radiochemist Fritz Strassmann. In 1938, they found that bombarding uranium with neutrons resulted in the formation of barium, a much lighter element, which indicated that the uranium atom had split.
Lise Meitner, with her nephew Otto Frisch, then formulated a theory explaining this process, coining the term "nuclear fission". Hahn received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 for this discovery. The implications of nuclear fission were quickly realized, leading to the development of nuclear weapons and, later, nuclear power.
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How did Otto Hahn's discovery of nuclear fission change science?
Otto Hahn's 1938 discovery of nuclear fission with Fritz Strassmann revolutionized science by proving that uranium atoms could be split into lighter elements when bombarded with neutrons. This finding, explained by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch, contradicted existing nuclear physics views and revealed the potential for immense energy release.
The discovery of nuclear fission led to nuclear reactors and atomic bombs, marking the beginning of the nuclear age and significantly influencing world history. Hahn's work paved the way for using radioactive isotopes in chemical, biological, and industrial applications.
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Did Otto Hahn receive any awards or honors for his work?
Otto Hahn, a German chemist renowned for his discovery of nuclear fission, received several awards and honors for his work. In 1944, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Later, in 1966, Hahn shared the Enrico Fermi Award with radiochemist Fritz Strassmann and physicist Lise Meitner for their collaborative research that led to the discovery of uranium fission. After World War II, Hahn also became president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (renamed the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science).
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How did Otto Hahn's career and discoveries impact the world?
Otto Hahn, a German chemist awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944, significantly impacted the world through his co-discovery of nuclear fission with radiochemist Fritz Strassmann.
Hahn's research on uranium bombardment with neutrons led to the groundbreaking realization that the uranium atom splits into lighter elements like barium, defying previous expectations. This discovery's implications were quickly understood by scientists, leading to the study of military applications and, eventually, the creation of atomic bombs during World War II.
After the war, Hahn became a respected public figure and advocate against nuclear weapons development. His work laid the foundation for nuclear physics and had a major role in world history.
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Otto Hahn (born March 8, 1879, Frankfurt am Main, Ger.—died July 28, 1968, Göttingen, W.Ger.) was a German chemist who, with the radiochemist Fritz Strassmann, is credited with the discovery of nuclear fission. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944 and shared the Enrico Fermi Award in 1966 with Strassmann and Lise Meitner.
Early life
Hahn was the son of a glazier. Although his parents wanted him to become an architect, he eventually decided to study chemistry at the University of Marburg. There Hahn worked hard at chemistry, though he was inclined to absent himself from physics and mathematics lectures in favour of art and philosophy, and he obtained his doctorate in 1901. After a year of military service, he returned to the university as chemistry lecture assistant, hoping to find a post in industry later on.
In 1904 he went to London, primarily to learn English, and worked at University College with Sir William Ramsay, who was interested in radioactivity. While working on a crude radium preparation that Ramsay had given to him to purify, Hahn showed that a new radioactive substance, which he called radiothorium, was present. Fired by this early success and encouraged by Ramsay, who thought highly of him, he decided to continue with research on radioactivity rather than go into industry. With Ramsay’s support he obtained a post at the University of Berlin. Before taking it up, he decided to spend several months in Montreal with Ernest Rutherford (later Lord Rutherford of Nelson) to gain further experience with radioactivity. Shortly after returning to Germany in 1906, Hahn was joined by Lise Meitner, an Austrian-born physicist, and five years later they moved to the new Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry at Berlin-Dahlen. There Hahn became head of a small but independent department of radiochemistry.
Feeling that his future was more secure, Hahn married Edith Junghans, the daughter of the chairman of Stettin City Council, in 1913; but World War I broke out the next year, and Hahn was posted to a regiment. In 1915 he became a chemical-warfare specialist, serving on all the European fronts.
After the war, Hahn and Meitner were among the first to isolate protactinium-231, an isotope of the recently discovered radioactive element protactinium. Because nearly all the natural radioactive elements had then been discovered, he devoted the next 12 years to studies on the application of radioactive methods to chemical problems.
Discovery of nuclear fission
In 1934 Hahn became keenly interested in the work of the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, who found that when the heaviest natural element, uranium, is bombarded by neutrons, several radioactive products are formed. Fermi supposed these products to be artificial elements similar to uranium. Hahn and Meitner, assisted by the young Strassmann, obtained results that at first seemed in accord with Fermi’s interpretation but that became increasingly difficult to understand. Meitner fled from Germany in July 1938 to escape the persecution of Jews by the Nazis, but Hahn and Strassmann continued the work. By the end of 1938, they obtained conclusive evidence, contrary to previous expectation, that one of the products from uranium was a radioactive form of the much lighter element barium, indicating that the uranium atom had split into two lighter atoms. Hahn sent an account of the work to Meitner, who, in cooperation with her nephew Otto Frisch, formulated a plausible explanation of the process, to which they gave the name nuclear fission.
The tremendous implications of this discovery were realized by scientists before the outbreak of World War II, and a group was formed in Germany to study possible military developments. Much to Hahn’s relief, he was allowed to continue with his own researches. After the war, he and other German nuclear scientists were taken to England, where he learned that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize for 1944 and was profoundly affected by the announcement of the explosion of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima in 1945. Although now aged 66, he was still a vigorous man; a lifelong mountaineer, he maintained physical fitness during the enforced stay in England by a daily run.
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On his return to Germany he was elected president of the former Kaiser Wilhelm Society (renamed the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science) and became a respected public figure, a spokesman for science, and a friend of Theodor Heuss, the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany. He campaigned against further development and testing of nuclear weapons. Honours came to him from all sides; in 1966 he, Meitner, and Strassmann shared the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award. This period of his life was saddened, however, by the loss of his only son, Hanno, and his daughter-in-law, who were killed in an automobile accident in 1960. His wife never recovered from the shock. Hahn died in 1968, after a fall; his wife survived him by only two weeks.