Nuclear fission is the process by which an atom splits into lighter atoms, releasing considerable energy. Its discovery had a substantial effect on energy delivery, geopolitics and advancements in science and medicine.
Bombarding uranium with neutrons causes nuclei of its atoms to split and form lighter elements. German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered this in 1938. But the process was explained and named ‘nuclear fission’ by Austrian physicists, Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch. On realising its potential in making bombs, they alerted other physicists who in turn informed the US president. Later, nuclear fission was used in making the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 for this discovery. Hahn, Meitner and Strassman stood firm against the use of nuclear technologies for military purposes. And they refused to be involved in the development of nuclear weapons though their discovery had made it possible.
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