Recently released documents give the inside story of Otto Hahn's 1944 Nobel prize in chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fission. They reveal flaws in the award-making process — and an attempt to rewrite history.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Sime, R. Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics 326–329 (Univ. California Press, Berkeley, 1996).
Bohr Scientific Correspondence (Niels Bohr Archives, Copenhagen).
Crawford, E. The Beginnings of the Nobel Institution: The Science Prizes, 1901–15 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1984).
Walker, M. Nazi Science: Myth, Truth, and the German Atomic Bomb 207–241 (Plenum, New York, 1995).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Crawford, E., Sime, R. & Walker, M. A Nobel tale of wartime injustice. Nature 382, 393–395 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/382393a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/382393a0
This article is cited by
-
The history of the discovery of nuclear fission
Foundations of Chemistry (2011)
-
Wissenschaft und Legende: eine Nachbetrachtung zu “Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn und die Kernspaltung: eine Legende aus unseren Tagen”
NTM International Journal of History and Ethics of Natural Sciences, Technology and Medicine (2001)
-
Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn und die Kernspaltung: eine Legende aus unseren Tagen
NTM International Journal of History and Ethics of Natural Sciences, Technology and Medicine (2000)
-
Whose legend?
NTM International Journal of History and Ethics of Natural Sciences, Technology and Medicine (2000)
-
Strassmann in the shadow
Nature (1996)