The Nucleus of Nuclear Fission
Specific Purpose: To enable my listeners to discuss the life and legacy of Lise Meitner.
Introduction:
I. Open with Impact: Yesterday you all heard about one of the developers of the atomic bomb and its implications to society, but what you may not know yet is that the atomic bomb would have never been possible without the contributions of Lise Meitner.
II. Thesis Statement: As a woman of Jewish decent in World War II era Germany, Meitner faced extreme challenges to her scientific career but persevered and made one of the most important discoveries of our time- that an atom could split and release tremendous amounts of energy.
III. Connect with Audience: We all have faced struggles in our lives, and there…show more content… Credibility Statement: I first heard the story of Lise Meitner in my physics class my junior year of high school, and after hearing it, I wanted to know more and the more I learned, the more respect I gained for her.
V. Preview of Main Points: Today I’m going to talk to you about the challenges Meitner faced as a Jewish woman, how she overcame those challenges, and the honors she eventually received.
Body:
I. Main Point: On her way to becoming one of the most influential women in modern science, Meitner faced many challenges, but she always managed to find a way to overcome them.
A. As a woman, Meitner was at an immediate disadvantage because women at the time were not allowed to attend high school. (jwa.org)
1. Since she could not go to school, her father hired a private tutor for Lise, and in 1901, she passed the entrance exam to the University of Vienna. (jwa.org)
2. In 1907, she became the second woman to receive a PhD in physics from the university.…show more content… When she got her degree, the only job she could get was as an unpaid researcher, and she wasn’t even allowed to enter the actual lab, and it wasn’t until five years later that she got a paid position. (jwa.org)
1. Although she originally had to work as an unpaid researcher, she persevered and rose to the head of the physics department at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry and worked there for over 20 years with her partner Otto Hahn, who was the head of the Chemistry department. (jwa.org) C. When the Nazis rose to power, Meitner was forced to flee Germany to Sweden. (atomicarchive.org)
1. Even when forced to flee Germany, Meitner kept correspondence with Hahn and was the first to explain the results of his Uranium bombardment experiment as the result of nuclear fission and connecting them with Einstein’s mass energy equivalency statement E=mc2. (jwa.org)
D. Because Meitner was in hiding at the time of her discovery, her partner was able to publish the findings without giving her credit and he received the Nobel prize alone. (jwa.org)
(Signpost: Although Meitner was not properly credited for her discovery at the time, missing out on a Nobel prize, her accomplishments did not remain unnoticed.)
II. Main Point: After World War II ended, Lise Meitner finally began to see some of the recognition she