Marie Curie was a Polish-born French chemist and physicist who became the first person and only woman to win two Nobel Prizes.
Marie Curie’s daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, followed in her mother’s footsteps, also winning a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in 1935.
German-American theoretical physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer (right, with her husband, Joseph, left) became the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, after Marie Curie.
Lise Meitner (right) was an Austrian physicist known for her work in radioactivity and nuclear physics. Otto Hahn (left) was her partner for many years in Berlin, until he betrayed her in 1944 when he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fission and didn’t credit her.
Renowned American scientist Leona Woods (back center) is known for helping build the first nuclear reactor and atomic bomb. She was both the youngest person and only woman to help build Chicago Pile-1.
Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi created the first official nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, beneath the stands of Stagg Field in Chicago, and led the Los Alamos team that developed the nuclear bombs.
A testing facility in the desert of New Mexico, Los Alamos had originally been built during World War II by the United States government exclusively to build nuclear weapons.
General Leslie Groves (right) directed the Manhattan Project, and J. Robert Oppenheimer (left), also known as “the father of the atomic bomb,” was the head of the Los Alamos laboratory.
Oppenheimer chose to name the test Trinity after a poem by the English poet John Donne. The site was known as Jornada del Muerto, or Journey of Death. It was located about 210 miles from Los Alamos.
On Monday, July 16, 1945, the detonation of Trinity gave birth to the atomic age. Moments after the explosion, those present saw a huge mushroom cloud rise in the desert toward the sky.
Given that such an experiment had never been performed before, every detail of the atomic bomb had to be meticulously checked and rechecked. Oppenheimer had to make certain it was ready for detonation.
On August 6, 1945, crew members on the Enola Gay plane dropped the first nuclear bomb, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The crew included Colonel Paul Tibbets, Jr., Captain Robert Lewis, Major Thomas Ferebee, Captain Theodore Van Kirk, and Captain William S. Parsons.
This infamous photograph, taken by tail gunner Bob Caron from the Enola Gay, shows the mushroom cloud that formed shortly after the United States dropped the first atomic bomb, over Hiroshima.
The bomb leveled most of the city and claimed about 140,000 lives. Prior to this, Hiroshima had been one of Japan’s most industrialized cities.
On the morning of August 9, 1945, the United States dropped the second atomic bomb on Japan, this time on the city of Nagasaki. It is estimated that between 39,000 and 80,000 people died, with half of those deaths occurring on the first day of the attack.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I became obsessed with the work of the female scientists involved with the Manhattan Project when I read a short article on Elizabeth Rona. While I knew a lot about the project already, having read several books on the subject, it surprised me that I had never come across her name. As I dug deeper, I realized that she was not the only case of omission: There were many female scientists whose contributions played a key role in the success of the mission but who had somehow fallen to the wayside. Their involvement was not noted in most history books, which mainly focused on the well-known male scientists. I found it odd, sad, and disappointing that these women had been erased from history. Why was their work on the project neglected? Who were these women scientists? Where did they come from, and why did they decide to work on the Manhattan Project? I wanted to know what inspired them to be involved. While I could not include every woman on the project, I knew I had to share some of their stories.
During my research, I learned about the morality of science and the difference between what can and should be done. Many of these women were not fully aware of the consequences of such a powerful weapon, and when the amount of destruction came to light, they struggled with their involvement. It begged the question: Can scientists do their job and still maintain a sense of moral responsibility?
I hope that readers will use this text as a springboard to learn more about the women who have made important contributions to science throughout history. The aspirations, frustrations, and desires women felt back in the 1940s are still very relevant today. While we have made great strides as a society to give women the attention they deserve in the sciences, there is still a lot of work to be done. But I hope that the stories of these atomic women leave readers feeling hopeful for the future—especially the future of science.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank the Emilio Segrè Visual Archives; the American Institute of Physics; Mary Straka, science librarian at the Argonne Research Library, Argonne National Laboratory; the Smithsonian Institution Archives; Allison Rein, at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives; Alexandra Levy, at the Atomic Heritage Foundation; the Los Alamos Historical Archives; and Brown University Department of Mathematics. At Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, my wonderful editors Alvina Ling and Samantha Gentry, and the entire staff. And, as always, my thanks go to the wonderfully talented Rob Weisbach, agent and friend extraordinaire. Gratitude to my mother, Celeste, and my sister, Francesca, for listening to me rattle on about atomic energy and female scientists and the joys of writing.
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SCIENTIFIC TIMELINE
— 1896 —
Henri Becquerel, a French scientist, publishes his research on penetrating radioactivity, which he noticed was being emitted by uranium compounds.
Marie Curie is tantalized by this discovery and vows to tackle Becquerel’s research.
— 1898 —
Marie Curie adds to Henri Becquerel’s research by discovering that the elements thorium and uranium emit similar radiation. She also discovers polonium and radium.
— 1905 —
Albert Einstein publishes papers explaining his theory of special relativity.
— 1911 —
Ernest Rutherford discovers the nucleus in the atom.
— 1932 —
The English physicist James Chadwick tells the world about his discovery of the neutron, which spurs further experiments into the atom’s makeup.
— 1934 —
Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie show that radioactivity can be achieved artificially.
In Rome, Enrico Fermi bombards uranium and other materials with neutrons but does not recognize some of his results as possible signs of nuclear fission.
— 1938 —
In December, while in Berlin, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann experiment with neutron bombardment of uranium. In Sweden, their partner Lise Meitner and her nephew, Otto Frisch, work on Hahn and Strassmann’s experiment and interpret the results as the splitting of the nuclei cleanly in two. They name this new phenomenon “nuclear fission.”
— 1939 —
Niels Bohr attends the fifth Washington Conference on Theoretical Physics, where he speaks about nuclear fission. Scientists there are perplexed, wondering how they could have missed it, yet are inspired to use the process further, particularly for military purposes.
Enrico Fermi, who had arrived in the United States only two weeks before the conference, also attends. Niels Bohr’s words intrigue Fermi, who begins to wonder about the possibility of using nuclear fission for military weaponry.
— 1939 —
By March, scientists, including the Joliot-Curies in
Paris and Enrico Fermi in New York, are performing small experiments to show that nuclear fission is not only possible but that, by extension, so is a nuclear chain reaction.
By August, well-known scientists such as Leo Szilard push Albert Einstein to sign a letter to President Roosevelt, warning him that building a superbomb has now become a possibility and that the chances the Germans might already be researching and working on such a weapon are good. Scientists feel that the United States should begin its own testing.
By October, President Roosevelt, heeding the advice of the scientists, forms the Advisory Committee on Uranium, which by November is looking to begin research into nuclear fission.
The year closes with the Joliot-Curies demonstrating that the breakup of nuclei can cause a chain reaction.
— 1940 —
By March, scientists discover that fission is easier to achieve with U-235, a rare isotope, but U-238 is much more available.
By June, studies in the separation of uranium isotopes begin at Columbia University, in New York.
— 1941 —
In June, Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, invades the Soviet Union. The United States still remains out of the conflict.
By November, scientists across the United States have come to agree that building an atomic bomb is a real possibility.
The year ends with President Roosevelt committing $400,000 for research into isotope separation. This sum will jump up considerably when more people are recruited and more research gets under way.
On December 7, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, causing the United States to enter World War II. Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.
— 1942 —
In January, Arthur Compton is hired to lead the Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab) at the University of Chicago, where prominent scientists begin to gather. Many who were working at Columbia University in New York move to the Chicago Met Lab.
In April, Enrico Fermi leaves Columbia University and joins the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago. Nathalie Goldowski and Leona Woods will eventually join him.
In June, the price of building the atomic bomb has jumped to nearly $100 million, and scientists calculate that a bomb could be ready by 1944.
By August, the building of the atomic bomb is officially under the direction of the Manhattan District of the US Army Corps of Engineers, and officially becomes known as the Manhattan Project.
In September, Colonel (later General) Leslie Groves is put in charge of the Manhattan Project.
By November, all the sites involved in the construction of the bomb have been chosen. They include Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The year ends with Enrico Fermi and his team, including Leona Woods, achieving the first self-sustaining chain reaction beneath the stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago.
— 1943 —
By March, J. Robert Oppenheimer has transferred to the laboratory in Los Alamos, where other scientists have also arrived.
In June, the first plutonium manufactured in a plant in Hanford, Washington, arrives in Los Alamos.
— 1944 —
By the start of the year, scientists have concluded that they will produce enough plutonium to build two bombs, not one, as everyone had predicted.
The start of the year also brings the decision by General Leslie Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer to test a bomb. While they had initially not planned on such a test, they now agree that testing will be essential.
By August, General Leslie Groves is told that a uranium bomb will likely be ready within a year.
By October, the site for the first atomic bomb test has been chosen: the Alamogordo Bombing Range in the desert of New Mexico. General Leslie Groves approves this choice.
— 1945 —
War continues, and in February, American forces land on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima.
By April, Los Alamos has nearly fifty pounds of U-235 at its disposal. Testing of the bomb is expected in a few months, and detonation of the official bombs is planned for shortly after the test.
On April 12, President Roosevelt dies, and the new president, Harry S. Truman, is briefed on the Manhattan Project.
In May, Germany surrenders, following the suicide of Adolf Hitler.
By early July, scientists are busy preparing the bomb for the first test. Code-named Trinity, it goes off on July 16 near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Bad weather delays the detonation until dawn, but then the test takes place without a hitch and the bomb performs better than most of the scientists expected.
In July, General Leslie Groves authorizes the use of atomic bombs on enemies when such bombs become available.
On August 6, the United States drops the first-ever uranium bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. President Truman goes on the air to inform the American people. The world is stunned, but Japan refuses to surrender.
Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium bomb is deployed on the city of Nagasaki.
On August 15, Japan surrenders.
On September 2, 1945, the surrender documents are signed, and World War II is officially over.
SOURCE NOTES
PROLOGUE
Descriptions of Elizabeth and Al Graves’s experience in Harry Miller’s Tourist Court cabin and their feelings on making the bomb, on Joan Hinton and her wanting to view the explosion, and on Elizabeth Rona’s experience can be found in the following sources:
McKibbon, Dorothy. “109 East Palace.” In Standing By and Making Do: Women of Wartime Los Alamos. Edited by Jane S. Wilson and Charlotte Serber. Los Alamos, NM: Los Alamos Historical Society, 1988.
Rona, Elizabeth. How It Came About: Radioactivity, Nuclear Physics, Atomic Energy. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge Associated Universities, 1978.
Ulam, S. M. Adventures of a Mathematician. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976.
Chapter One: ALL THAT GLITTERS
There are several wonderful biographies of Marie Curie and Pierre Curie, some translated from the French. Many include material on her life as a girl in Poland, Pierre and Marie’s meeting, and her discovery of radium and polonium. If still curious, look no further than the following:
Bernal, J. D. Science in History. New York: Cameron Associates, 1954.
Curie, Ève. Madame Curie. Translated by Vincent Sheean. New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1937.
Emling, Shelley. Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science’s First Family. New York: St. Martin’s, 2012.
Giroud, Françoise. Marie Curie: A Life. Translated by Lydia Davis. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1986.
Goldsmith, Barbara. Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.
Chapter Two: A SHY AND QUIET GIRL
Additional depictions of Lise Meitner’s childhood in Vienna and her start in the sciences can be found in the following:
Crawford, Deborah. Lise Meitner, Atomic Pioneer. New York: Crown, 1969.
Rayner-Canham, M. F., and G. W. Rayner-Canham. “Pioneer Women in Nuclear Science.” American Journal of Physics 58 (1990): 1036–43.
Rife, Patricia. Lise Meitner and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age. Boston: Birkhäuser, 1999.
Sime, Ruth Lewin. “Lise Meitner and the Discovery of Fission.” Journal of Chemical Education 66 (1989): 373–75.
Watkins, Sallie A. “Lise Meitner (1878–1968).” In Women in Chemistry and Physics: A Biobibliographic Sourcebook. Edited by Louise S. Grinstein, Rose K. Rose, and Miriam H. Rafailovich. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.
Weeks, Mary Elvira. Discovery of the Elements. 6th ed. Easton, PA: Journal of Chemical Education, 1956.
Chapter Three: A LIFE IN LEARNING
For additional information on Elizabeth Rona’s childhood, her upbringing, her love of family and medicine, her meeting with Otto Hahn, and her study with Marie Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie, please consult the following:
Parkinson, Claire L. Breakthroughs: A Chronology of Great Achievements in Science and Ma
thematics, 1200–1930. London: Mansell, 1985.
Rona, Elizabeth. How It Came About: Radioactivity, Nuclear Physics, Atomic Energy. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge Associated Universities, 1978.
Taton, René, ed. History of Science: Science in the Twentieth Century. Translated by A. J. Pomerans. New York: Basic Books, 1966.
Chapter Four: POWER COUPLE
On the lives of Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie, their intimate relationship, and their relationship with Marie Curie, the following works will give readers a deeper look:
Barr, E. Scott. “The Incredible Marie Curie and Her Family.” Physics Teacher 2 (1964): 251–59.
Bigland, Eileen. Madame Curie. New York: Criterion, 1957.
Curie, Ève. Marie Curie. Translated by Vincent Sheean. New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1937.
Emling, Shelley. Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science’s First Family. New York: St. Martin’s, 2012.
Goldsmith, Barbara. Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.
Opfell, Olga. “Triumph and Rebuff: Irène Joliot-Curie.” In The Lady Laureates: Women Who Have Won the Nobel Prize. 2nd ed., 165–82. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1986.
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