Abstract
ON March 8, Prof. Otto Hahn, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut for Chemistry, at Dahlem near Berlin, will reach his sixtieth birthday. To mark this event, a special number of the Zeitschrift fur physikalische Chemie will appear, in which all the articles will be contributed by members of his laboratory. A celebration of a more intimate nature is also contemplated in the Institute itself. Prof. Hahn's friends in other countries, among whom are many readers of NATURE, will wish to join with his colleagues in offering their warmest congratulations. To workers and students in the field of radioactivity the names of Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner are almost indissolubly linked together. Readers of NATURE will remember that Frl. Lise Meitner celebrated her sixtieth birthday last November, and it is most fitting that where one has led the other should not be far behind. Prof. Hahn's first work in radioactivity was an investigation of the activity of thorianite, carried out under Ramsay at University College, London. This work led to the discovery of a new radioactive substance, radiothorium. Attracted by the rapidly growing fame of Rutherford, he then went to Montreal for a year (1905–6). There he discovered a new body, radioactinium, in the actinium series and showed that there were marked similarities between the products of thorium and actinium. On his return to Berlin, there followed the discovery of mesothorium and some striking experiments on the use of the recoil phenomenon as a method of separating radioactive products. It was at this time that his association with Frl. Meitner began. Together they examined the radiations from many radio-elements and later, with von Baeyer, they discovered the presence of homogeneous groups in the (3-radiation of some products, the first indication of the now well-known (3-ray spectra.
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Prof. Otto Hahn. Nature 143, 368–369 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143368b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143368b0