Table of Contents

1 Atom Bomb and Nobel Prize.- 1.1 Hidden Microphones.- 1.2 Death Clouds over Hiroshima.- 1.3 Hot Tempered Discussions.- 1.4 Rumours about Professor Hahn.- 1.5 Criminal Investigation for a Nobel Prize Winner.- 2 Boyhood, Studies, and the First Probationary Years.- 2.1 The ‘Good Year’ 1879.- 2.2 University Studies in Marburg and Munich.- 2.3 Soap Bubbles and Exploding Chlorine Gas: Dr. Hahn as an Assistant Lecturer.- 2.4 “You Will Work on Radioactivity”.- 3 The Awakening of the Natural Sciences.- 3.1 Puzzling Radiation.- 3.2 Pioneering Ideas.- 3.3 ‘Atomic Energy’.- 3.4 Radium-The Great Revolutionary.- 4 The First Scientific Discovery.- 4.1 In London with William Ramsay.- 4.2 Radiothorium-The First New Element.- 4.3 An Uncertain Future.- 4.4 The Finest Year of His Life: In Montreal with Rutherford.- 5 Research at the University of Berlin.- 5.1 The Joy of a Discoverer in a Workshop.- 5.2 It’s Unbelievable What Qualifies as a University Lecturer Nowadays.- 5.3 An Element Is Not an Element.- 5.4 Lise Meitner.- 5.5 Isotopy-The Puzzle’s Solution.- 5.6 International Meetings.- 5.7 The Nucleus of the Atom.- 5.8 An Absent Minded Professor.- 6 The Kaiser Wilhelm Society.- 6.1 A ‘Call to the Nation’.- 6.2 The Kaiser Comes!.- 6.3 Radiation Protection—At That Time a Foreign Word.- 6.4 Research Work at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.- 7 The First World War.- 7.1 The Defence Forces and Science.- 7.2 Poison Gas Warfare.- 7.3 A Scientist at the Cross Roads.- 7.4 If Only Atoms Would Fly Into Pieces.- 8 New Success for the Atomic Researchers.- 8.1 The Old Dream of th e Alchemists.- 8.2 The Father of the Race , Protoactinium.- 8.3 No Luck Without Service.- 8.4 Applied Radiochemistry.- 8.5 The Remarkable Year 1932.- 9 National Socialism-Night Falls on German Science.- 9.1As Visiting Professor in America.- 9.2 Hahn Practises Solidarity.- 9.3 Commemoration for Fritz Haber.- 9.4 Germ an Physics-Excels in the World.- 10 Dispute Over the 93rd Element.- 10.1 Experiment in a Goldfish Pond.- 10.2 In Honour of Mendeleev.- 10.3 An Absurd Theory.- 10.4 Elements 93,94,95,96 . . . ad Infinitum?.- 10.5 Lise Meitner in Exile.- 11 The Splitting of the Uranium Atom.- 11.1 The Error Was Tackled with Heaven’s Fire.- 11.2 A St aggering Discovery.- 11.3 200 Million Electron Volts.- 11.4 “Real American Exaggeration”.- 11.5 Indispensable Chain Reaction.- 11.6 60th Birthday Celebratory Volume.- 11.7 The False Thans-uranics.- 11.8 Fantastic Energy.- 12 The Threat of Hitler’s Atom Bomb.- 12.1 A Memorable Conversation.- 12.2 Orders to Report for the Atomic Researchers.- 12.3 Heavy Water.- 12.4 An Outsider.- 12.5 The Bomb Will Not Explode.- 12.6 Nuclear Physics as a Weapon.- 13 The American Super-Explosive U235.- 13.1 Press Censorship.- 13.2 An Historic Letter.- 13.3 The Devil’s Business is Done.- 13.4 The Worries of General Groves.- 13.5 Otto Hahn’s Activities During the War.- 13.6 The Last German War Secret.- 14 The Hunt for the Atomic Scientists.- 14.1 The Alsos Mission Is on Target.- 14.2 ‘No Fraternisation!’.- 14.3 ‘The Day of the Uranium Bomb’ , 6 August 1945.- 14.4 A Difficult Decision.- 15 A World Full of Prejudice.- 15.1 A Protest in Despair.- 15.2 Uranium Is Like a Curse.- 15.3 Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry.- 15.4 President of the Max Planck Gesellschaft.- 16 Atom Bomb Diplomacy.- 16.1 A Piece of Good News.- 16.2 Big Stick Politics.- 16.3 No More Hiroshimas.- 17 In Conflict with Conscience and Politics.- 17.1 Atomic Energy Literature Instead of Crime Novels.- 17.2 Cobalt 60.- 17.3 Declaration on Mainau Island.- 17.4 InternationalAtomic Energy Conference.- 18 The Call of the Göttingen Eighteen.- 18.1 Reduced to Silence, Yet not Convinced.- 18.2 A NATO Officer Blabs out of School.- 18.3 The Gottingen Statement.- 18.4 ‘Unsuspecting Fools‘.- 18.5 Ten Against Five.- 18.6 An Incorrect Communique.- 19 Against Nuclear Weapon Experiments and Nuclear Balance.- 19.1 Political Creeds.- 19.2 Honours and Prizes.- 19.3 A Departing President.- 19.4 Last Journeys.- 19.5 Atom Bombs Stop.- 19.6 The Sun on t he Earth: The Resp onsibility of Science.- 20 Timetable.- 21 Sources and Pointers.- Translator’s Notes on the Text.

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From the reviews of the first edition: "J. Michael Cole translated this biography, which appeared in German on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the death of Otto Hahn. ! the description of the life and thinking of this great scientist is fascinating and thrills everyone who takes an interest to read it. ! the chronological course of events in his life, career, and his thinking is presented in such a gripping style, that it is hard to put the book down." (K.-E. Hellwig, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1069, 2005)