Von Laue,Meitner and Hahn,1959. German chemists Otto Hahn (1879-1968,right) and Lise Meitner (1878-1968,centre in front of a bust of Hahn) worked together in Berlin for nearly 30 years. In the 1930s they worked on uranium bombarded with neutrons. By 1939,Hahn in Germany and,a month later,Meitner in Sweden,announced that they had obtained nuclear fission for the first time. Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944. Max Laue (1879-1960,right) was awarded the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on X-ray diffraction. Photographed in 1959,at the dedication ceremony of the Hahn-Meitner Institute,Berlin,Germany |