There are a number of culprits, but I think that Bohr is far more guilty than she is prepared to say. Sime discusses in detail why Meitner ended up missing out on the Nobel Prize she probably deserved. There is more tension in the events which lead to the discovery of fission (and the competition to be first to publish) than in most crime stories. That is where my sympathy for Otto Hahn, Meitner’s collaborator for many years, diminished.
Sime’s description of how the German scientists felt about Germany being defeated was utterly fascinating. When should a person abandon a career or the work they love for justice? Is there a boundary one should never cross for personal gains? It is about personalities and human relationships, but more importantly about ethics. But this book is about much more, it is about the history of the first half of the 20th century Europe, about racism and what that does to both the hated and the hater. I should confess that before I became a writer, I used to work in scientific research myself and maybe that contributed to my utter absorption in this book, but I think that most people with high school science should be able to follow that part of the story.
Sime depicts the ups and downs of scientific research in nuclear physics and radioactive chemistry so skilfully that she had me sitting on the edge of the chair. From Planck to Bohr, to von Laue to Schrodinger and Einstein - a very privileged situation, but one she earned through a great deal of work and personal sacrifice.
Eventually she ended up working with the top scientists of the time.
Sime’s masterly narrative describes the incredible difficulties she had to overcome, first to get an education and later to be accepted by her male colleagues in Berlin. A girl in Vienna in the late 1890’s, with an interest in maths and science, whose best prospects would have been becoming a French teacher, Lise Meitner beats the odds and becomes a world calibre physicist. It is the story of one of the most outstanding women scientists of the last century. I have not enjoyed a book so much for years.
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