1938–1945Reputable sourceWell documented
Nuclear Fission and the Atomic Age
On the timeline · around 1938–1945 ·
What happened
In late 1938 the chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, with the physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch, showed that bombarding uranium with neutrons splits its nucleus in two — 'nuclear fission' — releasing enormous energy and more neutrons that can split further nuclei in a chain reaction. Within a few years this led to nuclear reactors and the atomic bomb.
Why it matters
Fission unlocked the vast energy that Einstein's E = mc² had predicted, with world-changing consequences: nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and a new and dangerous chapter in human history. Hahn received the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Sources
- The Nobel Prize. Otto Hahn – Facts (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1944) · Reputable source
Related timelines
- World War II → — Nuclear physics and the atomic bomb