Radiochemie, Fleiß und Intuition (published by Vera Keiser)

Neue Forschungen zu Otto Hahn, 500 Seiten, zahlr. Abb., Gb., 34,00 €,
ISBN 978-3-86225-113-1
GNT-Verlag, Berlin, Diepholz, 2018

In December 1938, after several years of joint work with Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn discovered together with Fritz Straßmann the nuclear fission, and thus opened the door to peaceful and military uses of nuclear energy and to a better understanding of the structure of matter. He was a pioneer and co-founder of radiochemistry.
It is due to his many years of experience, diligence, conscientiousness and also a good deal of intuition that he was able to find this discovery, namely to find what was hitherto unthinkable in inconspicuous preparations with the smallest amount of substance. In 1945, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. But the first president of the Max Planck Society has also left a great impression as a human being among his contemporaries around the world.
On the occasion of his 50th anniversary of his death, eight historians of science have come together to shed new light on different aspects of his life and work in twelve contributions. Thus, a well-founded essay collection was created, which is unique in its diversity on this topic.

With contributions by Dr. Horst Kant, Volker Lässing, Dr. Elisabeth Kraus, Prof. em. Dr. Martin Trömel (1934–2017), Dr. Michael Schaaf, Dr. Susanne Rehn-Taube, Vera Keiser-Morgenweck and Ralf Hahn M.A.

 

A brief discussion with Ruth Lewin Sime

Prof. Trömel created, along with me - on the basis of my examination paper - a joint publication for the magazine NTM (International Journal of History and Ethics of Natural Sciences, Technology and Medicine), which appeared in 2000. The publisher asked Ruth Lewin Sime to present her own viewpoint, and we again responded in the next issue. Ruth Lewin Sime unintentionally discloses in her writing the biased and inaccurate manner in which she treats sources that do not fit her conceptions. In such a case, the meaning is often altered or distorted. In order to observe this directly, it is interesting if all three articles are read in succession. That is why I have placed copies of the three documents available for download. In addition, there is an unpublished manuscript of mine, which discusses Sime’s article.

 

N.T.M. 8 (2000), p. 65 - 76

 

"Whose Legend?" (in English), by Ruth Lewin Sime

N.T.M. 8 (2000), p. 77 - 84

 

N.T.M. 9 (2001), p. 29 - 40