Chapter 12

The Disappearing Spoon Chapter 12

Summary

    In this Chapter, it mentions the tragedies of what chemists had to go through, and how women had a tough life pursuing a career in science. One in which is Marie Curie who discovered two new elements by skimming around nuclear waste of Uranium, just to find the nuclear waste more Radioactive. Then as she named one element Polonium, there began to many statements about her naming the element even though it was supposed to be named after her Home. Sadly, her life ended in leukemia, as did her daughter, and had her husband die.

     Meitner, on the other hand, was another victim to being the second women to pursue science where Marie Curie left off. As Marie had her trouble in finding a suitable place due to her being a woman, Meitner had the same trouble and just like Marie she had a man help her in her scientific progress. Although Meitner and Hahn never had a romantic relationship, they had a professional one. But, even the hardships they had been through together, Hahn disgracefully didn't share a Noble Prize with her.

Reflection

     This Chapter was really interesting because it discusses the political matters in Chemistry even we wished it was discovering something and being done with it.But unfortunately, it wasn't that simple, as mentioned in this Chapter. It was shocking to find out that just naming an element after your Home would cause different perspectives to mock the name and element one works on, like Polonium. This political view on naming elements has left me wondering that if someone was ever to discover a new element, it would be up to some other higher power to decide than yourself because politics aren't easy to please and you only get one shot. The good thing about letting another group of wise scientists chose a name is that they would remember past chemists or scientists who are forgotten but remembered in the place of an element name, such as Meitner.

Guideline Questions

1. Pierre Curie died by a street carriage running him over and killing him. Joliot-
Curie died of leukemia in 1956 which was caused by a capsule of polonium exploding in her laboratory, and she inhaled Marie’s beloved element. Then her mother died twenty-two years before with leukemia. 

2. Marie Curie discovered Polonium and Radium. Element Curium is named after Marie Curie. Polonium, Radium, and curium are Radioactive. 

3. Hevesy hid the two Nobel Prizes by dissolving them in nitric and hydrochloric acids which fascinated Alchemists because it can dissolve "Royal Metal," and put them in a beaker. 

4.The collaboration between Hahn and Meitner seemed Romantic but it was not since they shared a relationship between chemistry matters and Physics in other times. Hahn discovered many things with Meitner, defied his bosses, and worked with her in a
carpentry shop throughout all their years. They even sent letters when they were separated in the World War. Although, towards the end, when Hahn was getting a Nobel Prize he did not speak up for Meitner share of the prize, even through all they have been through. As a result, she died with no Nobel Prize just showing how she was a victim of “disciplinary bias, political obtuseness, ignorance, and haste.”