What Really Happened the First Time We Split a Heavy Atom in Half

This episode was produced in collaboration with and sponsored by Emerson. Click here to learn more about their We Love STEM initiative: http://bit.ly/2fnBiHO When scientists first split the atom, they didn’t realize what they’d done until physicist Lise Meitner figured out they had discovered what we now call nuclear fission. We're conducting a survey of our viewers! If you have time, please give us feedback: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SciShowSurvey2017 Hosted by: Hank Green ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters: D.A. Noe, Nicholas Smith, سلطان الخليفي, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Bella Nash, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, Tim Curwick, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Philippe von Bergen, Chris Peters, Fatima Iqbal ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow ---------- Sources: https://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/meitner.html https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200712/physicshistory.cfm https://www.chemheritage.org/historical-profile/otto-hahn-lise-meitner-and-fritz-strassmann http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/lisemeitner.htm http://bnrc.berkeley.edu/Famous-Women-in-Physical-Sciences-and-Engineering/lise-meitner.html http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed066p373 http://www.nature.com/physics/looking-back/meitner/index.html https://history.aip.org/exhibits/mod/fission/fission1/03.html https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1944/hahn-lecture.pdf http://www.iop.org/resources/topic/archive/curie-meitner/page_65216.html https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/publications/magazines/bulletin/bull4-0/04004700911su.pdf Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lise_Meitner12.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lise_Meitner12.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Otto_Hahn_und_Lise_Meitner.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hahn_Meitner_1912.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beta-minus_Decay.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nuclear_Fission_Experimental_Apparatus_1938_-_Deutsches_Museum_-_Munich.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barium_unter_Argon_Schutzgas_Atmosph%C3%A4re.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Otto_Frisch_ID_badge.png N https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kerncentrale_Doel_in_werking.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ivy_Mike_-_mushroom_cloud.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:R1_KTH.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meitner_crater_on_Venus.jpg https://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/4405642879/in/photolist-7Hj58Z-8gsVjm-SkZmGu-Amthpv-dJUhN2-9LTMEX-pwpgEz-ngAfn2-X3MxUd-h7rAMq-WMyN3w-h7sB8x-h7r8Ek-h7sphP-hyd1MS-iF3Zs4-h7rmC5-h7ri9m-hydV94-hycY83-D5d8Ra-h7rgB1-h7rz2w-hycs23-hydWxB-57x9o5-MvPgnq-4AYL1h-dJUkG8-7z13pW-htFmSj-gMYjHH-7z13iA-hsSNM6-dJUiuv-DpyMQD-VGmP8i-mHTndN-oNzVo8-6yUoT-4AYKZu-bxaN3X-8Qt9Zo-9LTzDF-hsSHq4-dNfuPq-dN9MXR-dJZHsm-91UA8t-pKoiJ6