This is the gripping true story of Lise Meitner, a woman who loved nothing more than doing physics – at a time when women had to fight to be allowed to do science at all. As if that weren’t enough, she had to flee Germany at the start of World War II because she was Jewish. Illustrated with a graphic novel page at the start of each chapter, this book tells how she used her mathematical knowledge to explain her German colleague’s surprising experimental results – and was thus the first person to realize that the atom could be split. Despite all that, he was the one who got the Nobel Prize for the discovery. This biography reads like a suspense novel and introduces a remarkable woman who changed the world, but was pushed aside when it came to getting credit. – Sondra Eklund, Mathical Selection Committee
As a female Jewish physicist in Berlin during the early 20th century, Lise Meitner had to fight for an education, a job, and equal treatment in her field, like having her name listed on her own research papers. Meitner made groundbreaking strides in the study of radiation, but when Hitler came to power in Germany, she suddenly had to face not only sexism, but also life-threatening anti-Semitism as well. Nevertheless, she persevered and one day made a discovery that rocked the world: the splitting of the atom. While her male lab partner was awarded a Nobel Prize for the achievement, the committee refused to give her any credit. Suddenly, the race to build the atomic bomb was on—although Meitner was horrified to be associated with such a weapon. “A physicist who never lost her humanity,” Meitner wanted only to figure out how the world works, and advocated for pacifism while others called for war.
The book includes an afterword, author’s note, timeline, select terms of physics, glossary of scientists mentioned, endnotes, select bibliography, index, and Marissa Moss’s celebrated drawings throughout.
– Book description from publisher