Benchmark
Contrast nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, and natural radioactivity (SCI.IV.2.HS.3).
Benchmark Clarification
Nuclear change occurs when the nucleus of one atom changes, resulting in an atom of a different element. When this occurs, highly energetic particles/radiation are given off.
In nuclear fission, the nucleus of heavy atoms split into lighter atoms. In nuclear fusion, the nucleus of light atoms fuse into heavier atoms.
Most elements have two or three isotopes (link to Glossary). Some are stable, meaning the nucleus doesn’t change. Others are unstable, meaning the nucleus decays, resulting in one or more different elements. This type of decay is called natural radioactivity.
Students will:
- Recognize that nuclear force holds the nucleus together
See Structure of the atom SCI.IV.1.HS.3.
Isotopes: forms of the same element with differing numbers of neutrons
Key Concepts (voc.)
- nucleus
- nuclear change
- force that holds nucleus together
- nuclear energy
- stable and unstable isotopes
Properties:
- mass
- element
- radioactivity
Real-World Context
- nuclear power plants
- nuclear energy from the Sun
- natural radioactive decay
- use of radiation and radioactive isotopes in medicine
Instructional Example SCI.IV.2.HS.3
Benchmark Question: How does matter change_
Focus Question: How are nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and radioactivity different_
Students will take notes from a teacher-led presentation of characteristics unique to nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and radioactivity. Working in small groups, students will use their notes, text, and other resources such as library books and the internet to create a Venn diagram. The diagram will show how these three processes are similar as well as different. Students will draw diagrams to explain how one of the three processes occurs from beginning to end.
Students will share their diagrams with others in a small group. They will evaluate the accuracy of each diagram and present the most accurate diagram to the class.
As a follow-up, students will research the following scientists and place them into the proper sections of the Venn diagram based upon their contributions to key concepts in nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and radioactivity:
Lise Meitner (link to Biography)
Lise Meitner (1878 – 1968)
ONE OF THE FIRST GREAT WOMEN PHYSICISTS
Lise Meitner was born in Vienna, Austria in 1878. Her father was a lawyer and able to provide well for the family, so-even though a girl-Lise was furnished with an excellent education. She attended the Academic High School in Vienna, and read about Marie Curie and her work with radioactivity in isolating radium. Intrigued, Meitner decided to study mathematics and physics so she, too, could become a physicist.
In 1902, she began her studies in theoretical physics with Ludwig Boltzmann. Although the concept that matter was composed of atoms was not generally accepted in that day, Professor Boltzmann was an early and enthusiastic proponent of the concept. Soon after the discovery of radium, physicists were able to prove that atoms and even sub-atomic particles existed. It was an eventful and exciting time.
In 1906, she received her doctorate and went on to the University of Berlin. It was here that Dr. Meitner met and began collaborating with a young chemist, Otto Hahn, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Hahn worked at the Emil Fischer Institute, which barred women from working there. But Dr. Hahn finally convinced the authorities to allow Dr. Meitner to work with him. She was given a carpenter shop on the first floor to use as a laboratory. Not only was this shop difficult to equip, but its size and the lack of full cooperation from the Institute’s administration limited her work to chemical research.
In 1921, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry was opened as part of the University of Berlin. This afforded opportunities for both Dr. Meitner, who became an assistant to Max Planck at the University’s Institute for Theoretical Physics, and Dr. Hahn, who was made a member of the staff. Dr Meitner was soon recognized for her work, and was asked to organize and become the head of a new Physics Department at the Institute. This gave her unlimited opportunity to meet and work with the greatest scientific minds of the time.
She continued her collaborative work with Dr. Hahn, and in 1917, they discovered the rare radioactive element protactinium. Dr. Meitner also did extensive work on her own, especially studying beta rays. She was the first to conclude that the emission of radiation follows, rather than precedes, the emission of the particles in the process of disintegration of radioactive materials.
In 1924, she was awarded the Liebnitz Medal of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and the Lieber Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in the following year. In 1926, she was appointed Professor Extraordinary at the University of Berlin. She continued in this position until Adolph Hitler’s anti-Jewish activities forced her to flee for her life.
Although the workings of nuclear fission were known to many enslaved Jewish scientists who were unable to escape Hitler’s decrees, they did not reveal their secrets. If they had, it is likely that Hitler’s military would have had the atomic bomb before the U.S. Ironically, the Jewish scientists who were able to escape Hitler’s grhtml formed the basis of the scientific group in the U.S. which developed the atomic bomb, ending the war Hitler had begun.
Just prior to escaping Germany, Dr. Meitner and Dr. Hahn found a new group of radioactive substances (transuranium elements, such as barium and krypton) that could not be identical to any element just below uranium in the Periodic Table. These experiments revealed that they had, in fact, split the uranium atom—something she called atomic fission. Thirteen months later, an atomic chain reaction was produced at Columbia University making possible the first atomic bomb.
Only July 13, 1938, Dr. Meitner received a forged set of documents and escaped with Dr. Coster to the Netherlands. At the age of 59, she was again starting over in a new country. One month later, Dr. Meitner moved to Stockholm, Sweden, where she began work at the Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences. Dr. Meitner remained at the Institute, and as a member of the Atomic Research Staff of the University of Stockholm, until she retired.
Dr. Lise Meitner lived at a time in which she was severely discriminated against because of her gender and religion. But, her inquiring mind, tremendous intellectual abilities, and the help of some of the greatest thinkers of her day, permitted her to overcome discrimination and become one of the most distinguished theoretical physicists to date. She not only made many scientific discoveries on her own, but also helped a number of others achieve greatness.
By the time of her death on April 12, 1989, Dr. Meitner had been the only living woman member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, who had received the City of Vienna’s Prize in Science (1947); was awarded the Max Planck Medal (1949), and also had been given honorary doctorates in science from Syracuse, Rutgers, Smith, and Adelphi Universities.
References
Yost, Edna, “Atomic Fission: Tapping A New Source of Energy for Man’s Use”; Women of Modern Science. Dodd Mead & Company, New York, 1959.
Sime, Ruth L., “Lise Meitner’s Escape from Germany, “American Journal of Physics. Vol. 58, No. 3, March, 1990.
Albert Einstein (link to Biography),
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
CONCEPTUALIZED THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY
Dr. Albert Einstein was born the son of an electrical engineer on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany. His scientific curiosity began by age five as he pondered the invisible force which directed the needle of a compass given to him by his father. But, he showed little academic promise at the Catholic state school he was forced to attend, and was unable to speak very well at the age of nine. His teachers said he was mentally slow, unsociable, and “adrift forever in his foolish dreams.” Unaffected by these criticisms, Einstein took refuge in a sea of books and learned to play the violin. These solitary pursuits brought him great joy.
One day, Einstein’s teacher brought to class a large nail she said was from the crucifixion of Jesus. As the only Jewish boy, all eyes turned to him as if he and his religious ancestors were directly responsible. Einstein did not understand this senseless hatred, and he ran from the room, returning to his books for comfort. This incident stayed with him throughout his lifelong fight against prejudice.
At the age of 12, Einstein’s life changed dramatically when he discovered Euclidean geometry. By age 16, he had also become proficient in differential and integral calculus.
In the 1880’s, Einstein’s family moved to Switzerland. Even so, he continued to be unhappy in school and was soon expelled because his rebellious attitude hurt the morale of fellow classmates. He then tried to enter the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Even though Albert’s knowledge of mathematics was superior to most, his knowledge in other areas was greatly lacking and he failed his first attempt at taking the university entrance examination. Later, in 1896, he was admitted to the Institute. At first he wanted to become a mathematics teacher, but soon realized that his greatest interests lay in experimental and theoretical physics.
Einstein passed his university examinations in 1900, and was given a teaching certificate – but not a teaching job as was usual at that time. Anti-Semitism was growing, and as a Jew, he was denied any job with status attached to it. After several years of unsuccessfully searching for a teaching position, he accepted a job as a technical expert, third-class, in a patent office.
Bored, Einstein began experimenting with complicated mathematical formulas. With a pencil in hand, he built a laboratory in his mind. Those calculations were basis of his doctoral dissertation which he completed at age 26. They also were his first steps in formulating a theory which shook the foundations of science.
Einstein had long searched for a general principal which would explain a paradox that occurred to him when he was 16 – if someone runs alongside a train at the same speed, as the train, it appears to be at rest. But, if it were possible to run alongside a ray of light, the ray of light – an oscillating electromagnetic wave – would not appear to be at rest. Therefore, everything in the universe was actually in motion. Speed and direction are relative, and only measured relative to other objects. Einstein then concluded that space and time were also relative. The only thing that was not relative was the speed of light.
In short, he stated that, no matter how fast an observer is traveling, he or she must always observe the velocity of “c” as the speed of light. He also hypothesized that, if an observer at rest and an observer moving at a constant velocity perform the same experiment, they must get the same results. These two considerations were the basis of Einstein’s “Special Theory of Relativity.” He went on to prove that this theory predicted energy “E” and mass “m” are interconvertible – thus “E=mc 2. This formula gave a remarkable new picture of the universe.
The Special Theory of Relativity challenged long-held views of time and space. Always before, scientists had believed that mass, length, and time was absolute and unvarying. Einstein demonstrated that they were dependent on the relative motion between the observer and what is being observed. In 1907, he proved his entire quantum hypothesis by showing that it accounted for the low-temperature behavior of specific heat in solids.
In 1909, he was made an associate professor at the University of Zurich, and a full professor two years later. A year-and-a-half after that, he became a full professor at the Federal Institute of Technology. Einstein was rapidly advancing. He had become so well known within the scientific community that, in 1913, Max Planck and Walter Nernest asked him to accept a research professorship at the University of Berlin. To further entice Einstein, Planck also offered him full membership in the Prussian Academy of Science. In 1914, Einstein accepted and remarked, “The Germans are gambling on me as they would on a prize hen. I do not really know myself whether I shall ever lay another egg.”
By 1915, Einstein had refined his General Theory of Relativity which described the structure of space. He maintained that the universe contained a continuum of space and time in the form of a complicated four-dimensional curve. Unlike Newton, Einstein proved that gravity was created by a localized bending of space caused by the presence of large masses such as planets and stars. In addition, he demonstrated that the shortest distance between two points in space was not a straight line, but a curved line – light is modified by the objects it encounters as it travels from one point to the next.
In 1919, the light of a solar eclipse was independently measured at two observatories. Einstein predicted that light rays which passed near the sun would, because of the intense gravitational waves. He also suggested that the universe is static and uniformly filled with a finite amount of matter; and although finite, it has no beginning or end point. The proof of his predictions, published in 1915, caused a great fury in the scientific world.
In 1920, Einstein was appointed to an honorary lifelong professorship at the University of Leiden. A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his famous 1905 equation for the photelectric effect.
During 1921-22, Anti-Semitic attacks on Einstein were renewed. Even Nobel Prize-winning physicists Philipp Leonard and Johannes Stark were known to criticize Einstein’s theory of relativity as “Jewish physics.” This Anti-Semitic prejudice increased rapidly with the rise of Nazi Germany. It was during this period that Einstein took a public stand against Anti-Semitism. For two years he and Chiam Weizmann, the future first president of Israel, traveled worldwide to gain support for establishing Palestine as a Jewish homeland.
In 1924, S. N. Bose, with Einstein’s help, developed Bose-Einstein statistics. This soon led to Einstein’s famous wuantum theory of an ideal gas. Around this same time, he was offered an honorary vice presidency of the Mark Twain Society. When he found that they also had offered a similar position to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, however, he flatly refused. Shortly thereafter, he found his name high on a list of people who were to be assassinated by the Nazis, and moved to Holland. But, he found that formerly tolerant nation also to be rife with Anti-Semitism and a fear of Nazi Germany. In 1932, Einstein moved to the United States.
Adolf Hitler then told Einstein that he would overlook the fact that he was Jewish, and asked him to return to Germany. When Einstein refused, Hitler reversed himself, insisted that no Jew could have formulated the Theory of Relativity immediately revoked his German citizenship, and place a price of 20,000 marks on his head. At the same time, Einstein resigned from the Prussian Academy of Science because of their Anti-Semitism, and was expelled from the Bavarian Academy of Science.
A year later he was appointed a life member of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University in New Jersey, and actively continued his work there until 1939. At that time, American scientists were becoming concerned that the Relativity Theory (which showed that mass could be converted directly to energy) could be used by German scientists to build a new “super weapon.” With the threat of a world war looming, Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt, a suggesting that the U.S. develop a counter weapon in hopes it could be used to prevent war. The counter weapon’s development was begun, but rather than used to deter a war, it was used to end one. In 1945, despite Einstein’s appeals, an atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan.
Einstein spent his last years in semi-retirement at Princeton and continued to work and teach until 1945, when he retired and was made a professor emeritus. Between that time and his death in 1955, Einstein became a strong advocate of a world government as the only practical way to achieve peace.
Dr. Albert Einstein’s legacy is unending. He gave science an entirely new understanding of the universe. He fought against religious prejudice and war. And the lived a full life – a life spent in the service of others.
References
Born, Max, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. (Translated) 1922, (rev. ed 1962).
Clark, Ronald W., Einstein: The Life and Times. 1947.
Encyclopedia of World Biography. McGraw Hill, Vol. 3, 1973.
Frank, Philipp, Einstein: His Life and Times. (Translated by George Rosen), 1947.
Feldman, Anthony, and Ford, Peter, Scientists and Inventors., Facts on File Publications, 1979.
Infeld, Leopold, Albert Einstein: His Work and Its Influence on Our World, 1950.
Jammer, Max, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics, 1966.
Seeling, Carl, Albert Einstein: A Documentary Biography. (Translated by Mervyn Savil), 1956.
Schlipp, P.A., Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. (2 nd ed) 1951.
Enrico Fermi (link to Biography),
Enrico Fermi (1901 – 9154) FIRST TO CREATE NUCLEAR FISSION
Winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize in nuclear physics, Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, in 1902. He grew up during troubled times of great economic, political, and religious strife. Even so Fermi earned his doctorate degree at the University of Pisa in 1922 – only a few months before the dictator Benito Mussolini seized power.
Throughout his studies, Fermi was extremely interested in the behavior of electrons in solid materials. He went to Germany to work under Bron, later returning to Italy where he became professor of physics at the University of Rome in 1926.
His interests in sub-atomic particles became even greater with Chadwick’s 1932 discovery of the neutron. Germi’s mathematics demonstrated the neutron’s existence and measured its emission. As part of this work, Fermio calculated the nature of weak interaction among neutrons – and later also calculated strong interaction.
Fermi’s important mathematical calculations made possible new types of nuclear reactions. He discovered that neutrons were more effective when they had a lesser change, and he noticed that they were also more effective in generating nuclear reactions if they first passed through water or paraffin.
This finding was important because, when a neutron is absorbed by the nucleus of another atom, the newly-formed nucleus can emit a beta particle and become an atom of the next higher element on the periodic table. IN 1934, Fermi conjectured that he could bombard uranium with neutrons to form an artificial element above uranium on the periodic table – a trans-uranium element which he called uranium X. What Fermi had actually done, however, was create nuclear fission, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1938 for his experiments.
While this work was going on, the dictator Mussolini had increased his hold over Italy and combined forces with German dictator Adolph Hitler. Hitler’s anti-Jewish control was rapidly increasing in Europe, and the Italian government passed many anti-Jewish laws. When Fermi refused to wear a Fascist uniform or give a Fascist salute at award ceremonies, this made his anti-Fascist views public and he was attacked by the Italian press. And, because Fermi’s wife was Jewish, they could not return to Italy. After a short stay in Stockholm, Sweden, where he accepted the Nobel Prize, Fermi moved permanently to the U.S., and became a citizen in 1944.
Here, Fermi and a well-known scientist named Szilard began collaborating. They speculated that neutrons could be emitted in uranium fission, which would cause other uranium atoms to also undergo fission and produce more neutrons. These would collide with more atoms to create a nuclear chain reaction. This type of reaction would produce tremendous amounts of energy in only a fraction of a second.
Meanwhile, world powers were conducting research to find a “super weapon” which would give them control over the outcome of World War II. The Manhattan Project was established at the University of Chicago, Illinois in an effort to develop a structure in which a nuclear reaction could be produced. Fermi was put in charge of the building which housed the Project. He soon discovered that graphite would slow down the activity of neutrons better than the paraffin he used earlier. Because the slowed neutron could be more readily absorbed by uranium atoms, nuclear fission was made easier.
The first nuclear reactor was made of uranium and uranium oxide piled up with graphite blocks. It also contained cadmium rods, used to absorb neutrons until they were needed to start a nuclear reaction. At 3:45 p.m. on December 2, 1942, cadmium rods were withdrawn from the nuclear pile and the chain reaction became self-sustaining – the nuclear age began with this first chain reaction.
In a little more than tow-and-a-half years, enough was known about fission reactions for the first atomic bomb to be developed, which was used to devastate the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world had never witnessed such widespread destruction from a single weapon. Shortly after Nagasaki was bombed, the Japanese surrendered and the last part of World War II was over.
Like many of the Manhattan Project team who knew how powerful nuclear explosions could be, Fermi opposed further development of atomic bombs. Even so, nuclear reactions were refined to create nuclear fusion – the basis for the even more powerful H-bomb. Fortunately, none have been used in armed conflicts so far.
When the Manhattan Project was completed, Fermi became a professor at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, University of Chicago, where he worked until he retired. Many of his students later went on to make great discoveries themselves, including Gell-Mann, Chamberlain, Lee, and Yang.
On November 28, 1954, before Fermi could see nuclear reactions put to peaceful use, he died of stomach cancer. Fermium, discovered a year after his death, was named for Fermi as a lasting tribute to the “Father of Nuclear Fission”.
Marie Curie (link to Biography),
Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867 – 1934) WINNER OF TWO NOBEL PRIZES
Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, November 7, 1867. She demonstrated academic excellence throughout her early schooling, and was awarded a gold medal upon completing her high school studies in 1883.
Although she was considered brilliant, girls were not allowed to attend universities in Russian-dominated Poland. Dejected, she spent a year in the country with friends. Upon her return, she began to tutor students to earn a living and also became associated with the “Floating University” – a group of young men and women who tried to quench their thirst for knowledge in semi-secret meetings.
In 1886, she became governess to a family in Szczuki, Poland, but this only served to fuel her hunger for knowledge and she was determined to continue her studies at a university. Fortunately, one of Marie’s sisters was studying medicine in Paris, France, at the time, so Marie joined her there.
After her graduation in physics from the Sorbonne, Marie began looking for a laboratory where she could continue her research on measurement of the magnetic properties of steel alloys. A friend suggested that she speak with a young professor, Pierre Curie, at the School of Physics and Chemistry of the University of Paris. Although Marie returned to Poland during that summer, Pierre convinced her to return to Paris and they were married a year later.
Early in their work together, the Curies were intrigued with the radiation which was emitted from uranium compounds. In searching for its source, they turned to pitchblende, a mineral which was known to contain uranium. During their four years of research, however, the two were forced to spend their entire savings to buy enough pitchblende to complete their experiments. by 1887, Madame Curie had completed two additional university degrees, a fellowship, a paper on the magnetization of tempered steel, and given birth to their first daughter, Irene.
The Curies set up their laboratory in a courtyard shed at the School of Physics and Chemistry. Soon, the news of the discovery of radiation reached them. They became virtually obsessed in their search for the mysterious element which would account for the earlier differences in radioactivity they had found. Marie discovered that, although radiation emitted from thorium was similar to that of uranium, pitchblende contained more radioactivity than could be explained by the combination of the uranium and thorium which it contained. They believed the pitchblende contained another element which they had not yet found, and called it “radium.” During this time, she also coined a new word to describe the emitted radiation, “radioactivity.”
After four years, their exhaustive work and near-starvation paid off – they were able to produce a tenth of a gram of radium. Within six months, the Curies had written two papers on their discoveries. The first, which announce the discovery of an entirely new radioactive element (polonium, named after Marie’s homeland), was presented to the French Academy of Sciences. The second paper proclaimed the discovery of radium, which they found to be two million times more radioactive than uranium. It also noted that radiation made air a conductor of electricity, and by ionizing the gas molecules, caused phosphorescent substances like zinc sulfide to glow brightly.
During those years, they jointly or separately published another 30 scientific papers. Among them was one which reported that diseased tumor-forming cells were destroyed faster than healthy cells when exposed to radium. This finding went unnoticed until World War I, and continues to be the basis of much work in radiology today.
Suddenly, the scientific world began taking note. In November, 1903, the Royal Society in London gave Marie and Pierre Curie the Davy Medal, one of their highest awards. Within a month, word came that A. H. Becquerel and the Curies were to be jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. Unfortunately, the Curies were too ill and exhausted to travel to Stockholm to accept the award.
Even French scientists began to take note, and created a chair in physics at the University of Paris. A few months later, Marie Curie was appointed director of research for physics. In 1904, the Curies had their second daughter, Eve. A year later, Pierre Curie, who had previously been rejected for membership, was finally elected to the French Academy of Sciences.
At their new academic posts, the Curies feverishly renewed their research on radium atoms. However, tragedy struck in 1906 when Pierre was run over and killed by a heavy carriage. Two weeks later, Marie was asked to take over her husband’s post – the first time a woman had ever been named a professor. Without time to mourn, and now the single mother of two children, Marie Curie undertook the task of leading the scientific world with her research.
In 1911, the French Academy of Sciences voted down her membership, but 11 months later she was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry – becoming the first person to ever receive two Nobel Prize science laureates. That same year, Madame Curie was also elected a permanent member of the Solvay Conferences in physics, and offered the directorship of the new Institute of Radioactivity in Warsaw.
Curie turned down the Warsaw offer and remained in Paris because the Pasteur Institute convinced her to stay by promising to establish the Paris Institute of Radium. This joint effort of the Pasteur Institute and the Sorbonne was dedicated in July, 1914.
World Ward I also broke out at the time. IN an effort to apply her talents to medicine, Madame Curie spent most of the next four years equipping automobiles with X-ray apparatus. By the end of the war, these cars became known as “little Curies.”
After the war in 1919, Marie Curie began work at the Institute of Radium, and her daughter Irene – a talented physicist in her own right – was appointed her laboratory assistant. Two year later, she published her book, La Radiologie et la guerre, which gave a full account of the gains made in radiology during the war.
Soon afterward, Mrs. William B. Meloney, editor of a large New York magazine, visited Madame Curie to tell her that she was an inspiration to the women of the United States. However, her attention was focused on raising funds to buy for research purposes some of the exceedingly expensive element, radium. Within a year, Mrs. Meloney had raised $100,000 and purchased some radium. Madame Curie collected this gift from U. S. President Warren G. Harding at the White House.
During the last years of her life, Madame Curie continued her work at the Institute of Radium, which became a major center for research in nuclear physics and chemistry. During this time, she pioneered many of the earliest medical applications of X-rays and radium. The techniques which resulted were quickly adopted in the treatment of cancer.
Unfortunately, Marie Curie was unaware of what the years of research to help mankind had done to her own body. Constant exposure to radioactive elements began to negatively affect her blood chemistry. Even so, with great support from her daughter Eve, she completed her last book, Radioactivite. On July 4, 1934, Marie Curie died of leukemia.
Marie Sklodowska Curie is remembered for more than her many extraordinary accomplishments in physics and chemistry. She was a symbol of commitment, dedication, and strength, having faced and overcome overwhelming prejudice because she was female. She was often poor because of the high costs of her research, and things were especially difficult after Pierre’s death as she raised her children alone.
But, regardless of the obstacle, Madame Curie overcame it. Perhaps Albert Einstein best described this brilliant woman. “Marie Curie is, of all celebrated beings,” he said, “the only one whom fame has not corrupted.”
References
Boorse, Henry A., and Motz, Lloyd, (eds). The World of the Atom. 1966.
Curie, Eve, Madame Curie. (Translated), 1937.
Dorin, Henry, et al. Chemistry; The Study of Matter. (3 rd ed.), Prentice Hall, Needham, MA.
Feldman, Anthony, and Ford, Peter, Scientists and Inventors., Facts on File Publications, 1979.
Encyclopedia of World Biography. McGraw Hill, Vol. 3, 1973.
Holton, Gerald, and Roller, Duane, H.D., Foundations of Modern Physical Science. 1958.
Chien Shiung Wu (link to Biography),
Chien-Shiung Wu (1915 - ) FIRST WOMAN PHYSICS TEACHER AT U.S. UNIVERSITY
Chien-Shiung Wu was born in 1912 in Liu Ho, a small town near Shanghai, China. She first attended school in Liu Ho, where her father was the principal. After she completed all the schooling available in her village, Wu was sent to Soochow for high school. There, she began to study the English language and decided to become a physicist because she enjoyed mathematics and Science. Next, she enrolled in the National Central University at Nanking. She took all of the math and physics courses available, and graduated with a science degree in 1936.
At that time, no advanced degrees in physics were offered in China, so Chien-Shiung Wu persuaded per parents to let her go to graduate school in the United States. In 1936, she arrived at the University of California at Berkeley to study under Dr. Ernest Lawrence, who had just made director of the radiation laboratory there. Son after, he began developing his noted atom smashing cyclotron. He also began his research of atomic structure and transmutations for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Studying under such a great scientist made this a particularly inspiring time for Wu.
Her excellent work was soon noticed, and she was given a teaching assistantship which continued through her graduation with a Ph.D. in nuclear physics in 1940. Dr. Wu’s researchfor her doctoral dissertation had two parts – she worked with X-radiations from beta decay, perfected new ways to separate two types of rays during disintegration, and also focused on establishing two complete chains of radioactive decay with half lives. Here, she collaborated with Dr. E. Serg, but this work was not allowed to be published until after World War II was over. Soon, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa (a prestigious national honor society) for her outstanding graduate work, and began work with Dr. Lawrence as his research assistant.
In 1942, Dr. Wu taught physics at Smith College. At the age of 21, after only a year at Smith, Princeton University asked her to teach nuclear physics to their students. But, within a few months she was called to work on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University – the project responsible for developing the atomic bomb. IN 1944 she was made a member of the scientific staff of the Division of War Research at Columbia. Most of her work there was spent developing devices which could detect and measure radiation.
Immediately following the end of World War II, Dr. Wu became a research associate at Columbia, where she found new ways to study the shapes of the beta spectra and the interaction of beta decay. To do this, she invented a technique which used a magnetic spectrometer into which a scintillation counter and a beta detector had been built. The results of her experiments gave proof of the Fermi theory of beta decay, and won her a promotion to associate professor of physics in 1952.
In 1956, two Chinese-American physicist colleagues, Professors Tsung Dao Lee of Columbia and Chen Ning Yang of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, wrote a paper which questioned a principal of parity which had been an accepted truth in physics since its conception 30 years earlier. They noted that there were great differences between what actually happened when K-mesons (discovered in 1952) disintegrated and what, according to the theory, should have happened. Lee and Yang purposed that these questions be cleared up by experimenting with pi and muon mesons and with beta rays. They later won a Nobel Prize for this theoretical work, but it was Dr. Wu who conducted the experiments with beta rays.
The results of her experiment clearly showed that the number of electrons emitted in the opposite direction of the rotation of the nucleus was far greater than the number emitted in the same direction. Thus, the direction of the emitted electrons is predetermined to be in the opposite direction of the rotation of the nucleus. Not only did her experiments prove that the motion of emitted electrons is the opposite of what was formerly thought, but they also liberated thinking about the structure of the physical world. Later, in 1958, for her outstanding work in this field, Dr. Wu was given an honorary doctorate in science from Princeton University, the first ever given to a woman.
In 1963, Dur. Wu again collaborated with Professor Lee and L. W. Mo, another research physicist. Her experiments clearly proved a new fundamental theory in nuclear physics – the theory of conservation of vectory current. This gave rational understanding to the lack of renormalization of the vector current in beta decay, the basis of the universal Fermi interaction. Dr. Wu then went on to perform other research which led her to determine the masses and magnetic moments of particles to a very high precision.
Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu has continued her research and teaching to date, and received many awards and memberships which recognize her merit. She was awarded the first Michael I. Pupin Chair in Physics, elected to the National Academy of Sciences, served as president of the American Physical Society, joined the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, received the Research Corporation Award, and the Comstock Award of the National Academy of Sciences. She also received the Scientist of the Year award from Industrial Research Magazine, the National Science Medal, the Wolf Prize in Physics from the Wolf Foundation in Israel, and was elected to the Academia Sinica (the Academy of Sciences of China).
Dr. Wu has shown that great obstacles such as gender, race, culture, and language can be overcome in order to succeed as a preeminent and respected scientist in her chosen field.
Books
C. S. Wu, and S. Moszkowski, Beta Decay, 1965.
C. S. Wu, and L. Cl L. Yuan. (eds.). Methods of Experimental Physics: Nuclear Physics, 1961.
and Shirley Ann Jackson (link to Biography)
Shirley Ann Jackson (1946 - ) FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO EARN A PH.D IN PHYSICS
The first black woman in the United States to receive a doctorate in physics, Shirley Ann Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., August 5, 1946. Her enjoyment of mathematics – along with strong encouragement from her parents and scientific events like the launching of the Soviet Sputnik satellite – helped her achieve her dream of becoming a theoretical physicist.
Jackson was offered many academic scholarships after graduating from high school. She decided to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), even though she would be one of only 15 Black students, and the only Black to study theoretical physics. Here, she joined the Delta Sigma Theta sorority and served as president for two years, following in the footsteps of her role models – Mrs. Frankie Freeman, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission; and Dr. Jean Noble, a professor of psychology at New York University.
While at MIT, Jackson also helped organize the Black Student Union, which she co-chaired for two years. She set up recruiting committees, and got a commitment from MIT to make enrollment requirements more flexible, and to admit more Black students. Jackson received her undergraduate degree in 1968.
Although she was accepted by graduate schools of may other prestigious universities, Jackson remained at MIT to complete her doctorate. She studied theoretical solid state physics and investigated the fundamental interaction between basic parts of matter. She received her Ph.D. in 1973.
Next, Dr. Jackson was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship in theoretical physics at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. In 1974, she was appointed to the post of Visiting Science Associate at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and remained there until 1975. Later that year, she returned to the Fermi Laboratory to spend a year as a research associate in theoretical physics. Dr. Jackson then moved to California to work at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the Aspen Center for Physics.
In 1978, she was appointed to the technical staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where she continues to work in theoretical physics. Dr. Jackson’s primary focus is conducting research on the Landau theories of change density waves in one and two dimensions, two dimensional yang-mills gauge theories, and neutrino reactions. In particular, she is involved in trying to explain one of the most troubling questions in physics today – what force holds the components of the hadron proton and neutron together_ Answering this question will lead physicists to understand the fundamental interaction between the basic constituents of matter when they interact with high energy, this finding could well prove to be as important as the first splitting of the atom.
As a Black woman, Dr, Jackson has overcome many obstacles in the primarily White male field of theoretical physics. She has earned a large number of awards and has served as a member of many noteworthy organizations. These include the Candace Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women; MIT Educational award; Board of Trustees, Lincoln University; Nuclear Regulatory Commission – National Academy of Sciences; and Sigma Xi, Also, the New York Academy of Sciences; Scholar, martin Marietta Aircraft Corporation; National Science Foundation Traineeship; and the Outstanding Young Women of America Award, received in both 1976 and 1981.
References
Blacks in Science and Medicine. Vivian Ovelton, Sammons Publishing, Hemisphere, Corporation, New York, 1990.
Ebony, “Nuclear Phyusicist at Fermi Lab”, November, 1974. Vol. XXX, No. 1, pp. 114.
Constructing: SCI.I.1.HS.4
Reflecting: SCI.II.1.HS.4, SCI.II.1.HS.7
Resources/References:
Webliography.
http://mtn.merit.edu/mcf/SCI.IV.2.HS.3.html/
Nuclear fusion.
http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/physics/u8c3phy.html/
Nuclear reactions.
http://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/physics/nucl/node5.html/
Classroom Assessment Example SCI.IV.2.HS.3
Students will write essays contrasting the three processes of nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and natural radioactivity over time. In their essays, students will describe the contributions of each of the following scientists to our understanding of nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and natural radioactivity: Lise Meitner, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Marie Curie, Chien Shiung Wu, and Shirley Ann Jackson.
(Give students rubric before activity.)
Scoring of Classroom Assessment Example SCI.IV.2.HS.3
| Criteria |
Apprentice |
Basic |
Meets |
Exceeds |
| Accuracy of contrast |
Fails to contrast any process. |
Contrasts clearly one of the three processes. |
Contrasts clearly two processes. |
Contrasts clearly all three processes. |
| Accuracy of description |
Clearly describes the contributions of one scientist. |
Clearly describes the contributions of two scientists. |
Clearly describes the contributions of three scientists. |
Clearly describes the contributions of four or more scientists. |
|
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