Who they are
Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch provided the physical explanation of the uranium reaction reported by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann. Their 1939 Nature letter treated the nucleus as capable of dividing and estimated the energy released. The distinction between the chemical evidence and its physical interpretation preserves the contributions of all four researchers.
Her work links the discovery of nuclear fission to the timeline’s later nuclear history.
Selected contributions
Selected works
Academic paper · 1939
Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction
Meitner and Frisch interpret Hahn and Strassmann’s barium findings as uranium nuclei splitting and estimate the energy release. The letter separates their physical explanation from the preceding chemical experiment.
Reading scope & citation
Reuses documented prior inspection: Both original letter pages visually read as screenshots; underlying laboratory records not inspected. Letter itself dated January 16, distinct from February 11 publication. Reused prior inspected evidence: Both original letter pages visually read as screenshots; underlying laboratory records not inspected. Letter itself dated January 16, distinct from February 11 publication.
In the timeline
- Feb 11, 1939Meitner and Frisch explain uranium splitting
Documented connections
Documented · co authored with
Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch co-authored the Nature letter interpreting the reported uranium reaction as nuclear division.
Hahn and Strassmann supplied the preceding chemical findings; this co-authorship does not collapse their contribution into the letter’s authorship.
Read the relationship record →Biography sources & portrait credit
- Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction ↗Nature 143, 239–240; facsimile hosted by Texas A&M University
Portrait credit
Harris & Ewing. Public domain (Commons file-specific copyright declaration). Via Wikimedia Commons.
Photograph. Cropped to 4:5, resized to 320 × 400 and converted to WebP.
Image source & identification ↗ · Public domain (Commons file-specific copyright declaration) ↗
