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Error and Discovery: Why Repeating Can Be New
Author(s) -
Quack Martin
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201303190
Subject(s) - nuclear fission , fission , bohr model , interpretation (philosophy) , extension (predicate logic) , transuranium element , nuclear physics , uranium , physics , philosophy , computer science , neutron , linguistics , quantum mechanics , programming language
The fascinating story of the discovery of nuclear fission began with an error that earned Enrico Fermi (see picture) a Nobel Prize for the apparent but incorrect discovery of the transuranic elements. Careful repetition and extension of the experiments finally led to the correct interpretation by Hahn, Meitner, Strassmann, Frisch, and Bohr as an effect from nuclear fission of the “small impurity” of ${{{}_{\hskip 0.3em 92}^{235} {\rm{{\rm U$ (0.7 %) contained in natural uranium.