Otto Hahn
Subtitle: Achievement and Responsibility
By: by Klaus Hoffmann
Publisher: Springer New York
Published: 2001
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] :
Number of pages: 276
ISBN-13: 9781461265139; 9781461301011
Subjects: Science (General); Chemistry; Physics
Description: Otto Hahn (1879-1968) was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on atomic fission: his work in Berlin in the 1930s and 1940s with Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann led to the discovery that uranium nuclei bombarded by neutrons undergo spontaneous fission, releasing enormous energies. This work, conveyed to England and the US by scientific refugees from Nazi Germany, led to the instigation of the Manhattan Project and the development of the Atomic Bomb. Reviled by many after the war as one of the people responsible for the carnage at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hahn had already begun to reflect on the social responsibility of scientists for their fundamental discoveries and the subsequent applications of the knowledge they create. Already during the war, Hahn had protested Nazi restrictions on Universities and researchers, and after the War, he became actively involved in efforts to restrict the spread of nuclear weapons. In this volume Klaus Hoffmann discusses Hahn's contributions to science and his reflections of scientific and social responsibility. He concludes that Hahn's ideas can still serve as a foundation for responsible and moral actions by scientists.
Notes: Online full text is restricted to subscribers.

Also available in print.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Table of contents: title: From the contents: Atom Bomb and Nobel Prize; title: Boyhood, Studies, and the First Probationary Years; title: The Awakening of the Natural Sciences; title: The First Scientific Discovery; title: Research the University of Berlin; title: The Kaiser Wilhelm Society; title: The First World War; title: New Success for the Atomic Researchers; title: National Socialism-Night Falls on German Science.