1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 694 Uranium Nuclear Fission! Officially Unveiled! Shocking the Entire Audience!
1929 10 Month 31 Day.

Inside the auditorium of the University of Rome.

Fermi was full of energy and high spirits.

Although this was his first time hosting a conference, everything went perfectly.

This gave him immense confidence.

Today’s meeting will be even more exciting!
At this moment, he spoke:
"During yesterday's meeting, Professor Yu Yin talked about using a cyclotron to produce transuranic elements."

"He tried to bombard element 91 with alpha particles (helium ions) to generate transuranium element 93 through nuclear fusion."

"But it didn't work out."

"The fusion process of heavy atomic nuclei requires a great deal of energy, and the current accelerator specifications are not enough."

"However, the neutron bombardment method makes up for this shortcoming."

"It is formed by adding neutrons to the atomic nucleus and then forming transuranic elements through beta decay."

"These are two different approaches based on different principles."

"Therefore, neutron bombardment of uranium is currently the only method for preparing transuranic elements."

Everyone nodded after hearing this.

This is why the top researchers remained calm even though they knew about the accelerator.

Because accelerators can only accelerate charged particles and cannot accelerate neutrons, they cannot replace neutron bombardment experiments.

The crucial task of finding transuranic elements can only fall to traditional methods.

The importance of transuranic elements far surpasses that of element 43.

Then, Fermi remarked with emotion:

"However, transuranic elements have always been like ghosts, leaving no trace."

Whether it actually exists remains a mystery.

"Although I am hailed as the first person to discover transuranic elements, I will not be at peace until I have found them."

Everyone smiled knowingly.

They could understand Fermi's feelings very well.

"Without further ado, let the meeting officially begin!"

The first person to take the stage today is Elena.

She is currently considered the leading woman in the field of nuclear physics.

Both Meitner and Maye genuinely liked her.

Furthermore, after Elena took over the Radium Institute, she recruited several female researchers.

In terms of the percentage of women, her research institute is definitely one of the highest in the world.

Elena, 32 years old this year, exudes the intellect and wisdom of a mature woman.

With the strong support of Langevin, de Broglie, and others, she finally obtained a professorship in France.

This is especially difficult for women.

Elena received applause immediately after taking the stage.

“Over the past two years, my husband Joliot and I have published a total of seven papers on transuranic elements.”

"In our first paper, we discovered that the products of neutron bombardment of uranium contained isotopes of element 90, thorium."

"If the result is correct, it means that the uranium nucleus has lost an alpha particle."

"In our second paper, we discovered element 89, actinium."

"Now things have become very complicated."

"This means that the uranium nucleus has lost 3 protons."

"The third paper is even more bizarre, as the product contains lanthanum, element number 57."

"I still believe that the thorium, actinium, lanthanum and other elements found above are isotopes of some kind of transuranic element."

"However, the properties of this transuranium element are very similar to those of other elements, so it is impossible to distinguish them."

Upon hearing this, the crowd began to discuss it amongst themselves.

During their research, they encountered the same problem, making it extremely difficult to distinguish between them.

However, at that moment, Elena changed the subject.

"However, several recent experiments have changed my mind."

"We redesigned the experiment and built more sophisticated chemical analysis equipment."

"It was eventually discovered that the products of neutron bombardment of uranium were far more complex than imagined, perhaps containing dozens of isotopes."

"I firmly believe that transuranic elements exist, but similarly, neutron bombardment can indeed cause fission in uranium nuclei."

"This fission is a slight fission, in which the uranium nucleus only loses a few protons, thus becoming an element with a lower atomic number."

"This explains the findings in my previous papers."

Wow!
Everyone was shocked!

Elena brought up a shocking theory.

"Uranium nuclei can also undergo fission!"

"However, the atomic number doesn't change much."

"It's like a neutron hitting a corner of an atomic nucleus, producing several tiny fragments."

But someone immediately asked:
"Professor Elena, how do you explain the presence of lanthanum in the third paper?"

"Its atomic number is much different from that of uranium."

Elena had clearly considered this.

"After all, lanthanum belongs to the lanthanide group, and their properties are very similar."

"Element 57, lanthanum, and element 71, lutetium, are roughly the same."

"Suppose a neutron first strikes a uranium nucleus to produce element 90."

"Then, another neutron bombarded this element 90, producing element 88."

"Then, the neutron bombarded element 88, producing element 86."

"And so on."

"It is eventually possible to generate element number 71."

"This also matches my conjecture that the product contains at least dozens of isotopes."

Wow!
Everyone was shocked!

Irene's theory sounds a bit too far-fetched.

It's like taking a small knife and carving a stone continuously.

A neutron is like a knife, and a uranium nucleus is like a stone.

With each cut, the stone takes on a new shape, representing a new element.

"My God!"

"If that's really the case, then how many elements are in the product?!"

"No wonder we couldn't separate them, this is way too complicated!"

However, some bigwigs frowned slightly.

"Professor Elena's theory is a bit too idealistic."

"In bombardment experiments, the amount of product generated is very small."

How can neutrons possibly bombard those products precisely?

"That's a bit of a stretch."

Soon, a discussion arose from the audience.

A hint of doubt appeared on Fermi's cold face.

Elena's theory neither refuted nor proved transuranium, but focused on nuclear fission.

The other party must provide a reasonable explanation for their experimental phenomena.

Judging from the results, this explanation is indeed self-consistent.

"But I still feel like there's something wrong."

"I don't know where the problem lies either."

Soon, Elena's speech ended, and the Q&A session began.

Everyone raised their questions, which she resolved perfectly.

Hahn and Meitner exchanged a glance and smiled slightly.

Their content will overturn Elena's theories!

Next, Chadwick, Bot, and others took to the court.

But there have been no substantial breakthroughs.

Soon, it was finally Hahn's turn to take the stage.

As the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry, he delivered the speech on behalf of the team.

At this time, Hahn was quite famous in the chemistry community, but not so much in the physics community.

So Fermi invited him, but his playing time was relatively late.

However, this did not affect Hahn's confidence. "Hello everyone, I am Hahn from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Germany."

"Today, I am giving this presentation on behalf of two other members of my team, Ms. Meitner and Dr. Strassmann."

"We discovered a fascinating phenomenon in our work on transuranic elements."

"This could challenge the theory that Professor Elena just proposed."

Wow!
Hahn's opening remarks instantly stunned everyone.

Initially, no one took his appointment seriously.

Because some people present did not know Hahn, only that he was a chemist.

But today is the physicists' day.

Therefore, people felt that his content wouldn't offer much of a breakthrough.

However, it was quite interesting that the other party actually opposed Elena on the spot.

"They definitely came prepared!"

Even Fermi couldn't help but glance at him.

He knew that Hahn's team was also researching transuranic elements, which is why he invited them.

Judging from his age, Hahn was considered a senior among those present.

The other party would certainly not speak without a purpose in this situation; they are very likely carrying a secret weapon.

"Indeed, the heroes of the world should not be underestimated."

He became intensely curious.

Upon hearing this, Elena simply smiled slightly.

In the crowd, Frisch excitedly said to Taylor and the others:
"Just you wait and see."

“My aunt had vaguely mentioned to me before that they had discovered an extraordinary phenomenon in their experiments.”

"Today's performance is expected to be spectacular."

The friends were confused but impressed.

I wondered if they had discovered transuranic elements?

At this point, Hahn continued:
"Next, I will share our team's research findings."

"Professor Elena once used the coprecipitation method to precipitate transuranic elements and unexpectedly discovered actinium and lanthanum."

“My team also adopted this approach.”

"But we use the barium-radium coprecipitation method."

"That's right, this is the method that Marie Curie used to separate and purify radium."

Wow!
Upon hearing this, Elena's expression shifted slightly.

She suddenly thought of something.

Next, Hahn explained in detail the process of the barium-radium coprecipitation method.

And how they use this method to analyze the composition of the product.

"In her third paper, Professor Elena discovered an isotope that is very similar to lanthanum."

"She couldn't be sure whether it was an isotope of lanthanum or an isotope of transuranic elements."

"And our results confirm that it is an isotope of lanthanum."

"Because by improving the chemical separation method, we finally proved that element barium (number 56) exists in the products of neutron bombardment of uranium!"

"Barium has different properties from lanthanides and actinides, so it is easy to verify."

"After neutrons bombard uranium to produce barium, barium then decays into lanthanum through beta decay."

Wow!
The whole audience was shocked!

All the experimental experts were dumbfounded.

It was strange enough that Elena found lanthanum in the product.

Now Hahn says that barium has reappeared.

This is too bizarre.

"How could there be barium?"

"Lanium and barium have very different properties."

However, soon someone asked:

"Professor Hahn, even if your result is correct."

"This does not mean that Professor Elena's theory is wrong."

"Barium is only one ordinal number smaller than lanthanum, and it can also be formed through impact."

Upon hearing this, Hahn smiled slightly; he had already considered this situation.

"No!"

"Here, I would like to thank Dr. Strassmann in our team."

"His precise measurements of the elements make it necessary for us to consider a new conjecture."

"In the analysis of the products, we found that the content of barium was much higher than that of other elements, including lanthanum."

"This means that most of the uranium that reacted was converted into barium."

"If Professor Elena's theory is correct."

"Then the content of each element should be related to its atomic number."

"The higher the atomic number, the higher its abundance should be, because lower-level elements can only be produced by bombarding higher-level elements with neutrons."

"And the bombardment efficiency is less than 1%."

"That is, if 10000 elements with the number 90 are generated, then only 100 elements with the number 88 can be generated next, and so on."

"But now, the content of barium far exceeds that of all the elements that follow it."

"Therefore, only one possible reason remains."

"That means the uranium nucleus has undergone fission, splitting into two!"

"Yes, uranium nuclear fission, which everyone previously thought didn't exist, might actually exist!"

"Today, I am extremely excited to announce this news to you all."

"What Professor Fermi discovered may not be a true transuranic element, but rather fragments from uranium nuclear fission!"

hiss!
quiet!
The venue was so quiet you could hear a pin drop!

Everyone was stunned and speechless!

"Oh!"

"Oh, God!"

"How can this be?"

"A tiny neutron actually split a huge uranium nucleus in two?"

"This is simply unbelievable."

Under the shocked gazes of the crowd, Hahn finally spoke:
“If we acknowledge uranium nuclear fission, then we can explain the situation in Professor Elena’s three papers.”

"Neutrons can indeed strike uranium nuclei, mostly splitting them in two."

"There is also a small chance that only one fragment will be produced upon impact."

"Therefore, many elements and their isotopes will appear in the product."

"Because these elements are present in very small amounts, they are difficult to measure effectively, which has led to many misunderstandings."

Wow!
Hahn's analysis completely ignited the atmosphere in the room.

Elena immediately lost her composure.

But the thrill in her heart told her that she might have missed another huge treasure.

Because Joliot had jokingly suggested this idea in private.

"A neutron is like a cannonball, capable of blasting a uranium nucleus into many fragments."

"This is why the measurement results are different each time."

"This explanation is the simplest."

However, Elena did not adopt her husband's conjecture, because that would leave no room for transuranic elements.

But now, Hahn has proven the existence of uranium nuclear fission with irrefutable experimental results!

Their data was so detailed and convincing.

At this moment, Fermi was probably the most emotionally stirred of everyone present.

One of the purposes of his holding this conference was to definitively conclude his theory on transuranium.

However, reality led to a major misunderstanding.

After all that effort, it turned out that transuranic elements did not exist; instead, nuclear fission took their place.

There's nothing more speechless than this.

However, Fermi quickly realized something.

"This doesn't make any sense in theory!"

(End of this chapter)