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Marietta Blau

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Marietta Blau
Marietta Blau Portrait
Born(1894-04-29)29 April 1894
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died27 January 1970(1970-01-27) (aged 75)
Vienna, Austria
NationalityAustrian
OccupationPhysicist
Known forUsing nuclear emulsions to detect high energy particles
Scientific career
Thesis Über die Absorption divergenter γ-Strahlung [1][2]
Doctoral advisorStefan Meyer [3]
Doctoral studentsHertha Wambacher [4]

A Jewish Austrian physicist of the 20th century who pioneered developments of photographic nuclear emulsions to image and accurately measure high-energy nuclear particles and events, significantly advancing the field of particle physics in her time. For this, she was awarded the Lieben Prize by the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW). As a Jew, she became an émigré from Austria because of the 1938 Nazi Anschluss (annexe), her research continuing from Oslo, onto Mexico and the United States of America before eventually returning to Austria in 1960 where she was awarded the ÖAW Erwin Schrödinger Prize.

Blau discovered astronomically originating energy had a disintegrating effect to nuclei. [5]

Biography

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Blau was born on 29 April 1894,[6] in Vienna,[7] to Mayer (Markus) Blau (1854–1919),[3] a k.k. Gerichtsadvokaten [8] and music publisher, and his wife, Florentine Goldzweig. After having obtained the general certificate of education from the girls' high school run by the Association for the Extended Education of Women,[6][9] she studied physics and mathematics at the University of Vienna from 1914 to 1918; her PhD, on the absorption of gamma radiation, was awarded in March 1919.[6] Blaus' thesis was approved by F.S. Exner and Stefan Meyer.[2]

Early career

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From 1919 to 1923, Blau held several positions in industrial and University research institutions in Austria and Germany; in 1921, she moved to Berlin to work at a manufacturer of x-ray tubes, a position she left in order to become an assistant at the Institute for Medical Physics at the University of Frankfurt am Main.[6] From 1923 on, she worked as an unpaid scientist at the Institut für Radiumforschung of the ÖAW in Vienna. A stipend by the Austrian Association of University Women made it possible for her to do research also in Göttingen and Paris (1932/1933) at the Curie Institute.[10]

The production of techniques using nuclear emulsion by Blau was made from 1923 until 1938. [11] The methodical goals which she pursued were the identification of particles, in particular alpha-particles and protons, and the determination of their energy based on the characteristics of the tracks they left in emulsions; there, she developed a photographic emulsion technique used in the study of cosmic rays,[6] being the first scientist to use nuclear emulsions to detect neutrons. For this work, Blau and her former student Hertha Wambacher received the Lieben Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 1937. It was her greatest success when, also in 1937, she and Wambacher discovered "disintegration stars" in photographic plates that had been exposed to cosmic radiation at an altitude of 2,300 metres (≈7,500 feet) above sea level. These stars are the patterns of particle tracks from nuclear reactions (spallation events) of cosmic-ray particles with nuclei of the photographic emulsion.

Émigré

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See also: German nationalism in Austria

Via Ellen Gleditsch Blau left Austria on a research visit to Oslo during 1938 and because of the subsequent annexation couldn't return.[5] Through the intercession of Albert Einstein,[6][12] she obtained a teaching position at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City and later at Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo.[12] Conditions in Mexico made research extremely difficult for her, and she seized an opportunity to move to the United States in 1944.[13]

Post-war

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In the United States, Blau worked in industry until 1948, afterwards (until 1960) at Columbia University, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Miami. At these institutions, she was responsible for the application of the photographic method of particle detection in high-energy experiments at particle accelerators.

She was nominated several times, during the period 1950 to 1957, for the Nobel Prize in Physics and once for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry by Erwin Schrödinger and Hans Thirring.[14]

In 1960, Blau returned to Austria and conducted scientific work at the Institute for Radium Research until 1964 – again without pay. She headed a working group analyzing particle-track photographs from experiments at CERN and supervised a dissertation in this field.[15][16] In 1962, she received the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences,[17] but an attempt to make her also a corresponding member of the Academy was not successful.[18]

Legacy

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In 1950, Cecil Powell received the Nobel Prize in Physics for work (partially) based on the work of Blau, specifically [6] the development of the photographic film method for particle detection and the discovery of the meson [19][20] see also: G.P.S. Occhialini [21]

The Marietta Blau-Stipendium a government scholarship (of the Bundesministeriums für Frauen, Wissenschaft und Forschung) [22]

Death

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Marietta Blau died in Vienna from cancer on 27 January 1970.[23] Her illness was related to her unprotected handling of radioactive substances[6] as well as her cigarette smoking over many years. No obituary appeared in any scientific publication.[18]

Works

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1950s

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Report on the discovery of stars produced by cosmic rays:

  • Blau, Marietta. "Bericht über die Entdeckung der durch kosmische Strahlung erzeugten Sterne." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 159 (1950): 53–57.

1940s

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  • Blau, Marietta and Smith, J. E. "Beta-ray Measurements and Units." Nucleonics, 2 no. 6 (1948): 67–74.
  • Blau, Marietta and Carlin, J. R. "Industrial Applications of Radioactivity." Electronics, 21 no. 1–4 (1948): 78–82.
  • Blau, Marietta and Dreyfus, B. "The Multiplier Phott-Tube in Radioactive Measurements." The Review of Scientific Instruments, 16, no. 9 (1945): 245–248.
  • Blau, Marietta and Feuer, I. "Radioactive Light Sources." Journal of the Optical Society of America, 36 no. 10 (1946): 576–580.

1930s

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  • Blau, Marietta and Wambacher, Hertha. "Über Versuche durch Neutronen ausgelöste Protonen photographisch nachzuweisen." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 141 (1932): 180.
  • Blau, Marietta and Wambacher, Hertha. "Über Versuche durch Neutronen ausgelöste Protonen photographisch nachzuweisen II" Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 141 (1932): 617–20.
  • Blau, Marietta and Wambacher, Hertha."Über das Verhalten konloser Emulsionen gegenüber Alpha Partikeln." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 141 (1932): 467–474.
  • Blau, Marietta and Kara-Michailova, Elisabeth. "Über die durchdringende Strahlung des Poloniums." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 140 (1931): 615–622.
  • Blau, Marietta. "Über photographische Untersuchungen mit radioactiven Strahlungen." In Zehn Jahre Forschung auf dem Physikalisch-Medizinischen Grenzgebiet, edited by F. Dessauer. 390–98. Leipzig: Georg Thieme, 1931.
  • Blau, Marietta and Rona, Elisabeth. "Anwendungen der Chamié'schen photographischen Methode zur Prüfung des chemischen Verhaltens von Polonium." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 139 (1930): 275–279.
  • Blau, Marietta and Rona, Elisabeth. "Ionisation durch alpha-Strahlen." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 135 (1926): 573–585.

1920s

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  • Blau, Marietta. "Über photographische Intensitätsmessungen von Poloniumpräparaten." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 137 (1928): 259–268.
  • Blau, Marietta. "Über die photographische Wirkung von H-Strahlen aus Paraffin und Atomfragmenten." Zeitschrift für Physik, 48 (1928): 751–764.
  • Blau, Marietta. "Über die photographische Wirkung naturliche H-Strahlen." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 136 (1927): 469–480.
  • Blau, Marietta. "Die photographische Wirkung von H-Strahlen aus Paraffin und Aluminium." Zeitschrift für Physik, 34 (1925): 285–295.
  • Blau, Marietta. "Über die photographische Wirkung naturliche H-Strahlen." Sitzungsberichte Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 134 (1925): 427–436.

1910s

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On the absorption of divergent γ-radiation:

  • Blau, Marietta. "Über die Absorption divergenter γ-Strahlung." Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteillung IIa, 127 (1918): 1253–1279.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abteilung 2a, 127 (1918): 1253–1279.
  2. ^ a b Stadler, Helga. "Marietta Blau". lise.univie.ac.at (in German). Universität Wien. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  3. ^ a b "GEDENKBUCH für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus an der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften". www.oeaw.ac.at. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Archived from the original on 29 April 2025. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  4. ^ "Marietta Blau: Vergessene Pionierin der Kernphysik". aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Archived from the original on 29 April 2025. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  5. ^ a b Strohmaier, Brigitte; Kutschera, Walter (23 September 2024). "Cosmic rays, radiocarbon and the beginning of high-energy particle physics: Marietta Blau and the "disintegration stars"". Radiocarbon. University of Arizona: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/RDC.2024.63.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Rentetzi, Maria (27 February 2009). "Marietta Blau. The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women". jwa.org. Jewish Women's Archive. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013.
  7. ^ Mark Wolverton (10 August 2021). "Distillations Magazine: The Dark Stars of Marietta Blau". www.sciencehistory.org. Science History Institute. Archived from the original on 29 April 2025. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  8. ^ Anne Hardy (16 April 2020). "Marietta Blau: Vergessene Pionierin der Kernphysik" (PDF). publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de (in German). Publikationsserver der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Retrieved 29 April 2025 – via (M.R. (2019) www.encyclopedia.com). Als Tochter eines k. k. Hofund Gerichtsadvokaten gehörte sie dem gehobenen jüdischen Mittelstand an und konnte das Privat-Mädchen-Obergymnasium besuchen.
  9. ^ AHS-Rahlgasse https://www.ahs-rahlgasse.at In 1888 an association was founded with the aim of establishing a girls' high school. This goal was achieved in 1892 with the founding of the first girls' grammar school. The school founder was Marianne Hainisch. Our school was the first grammar school for girls in what is now the Republic of Austria, i.e. the first school that gave girls a higher education entrance qualification. The first girls' class was opened in Hegelgasse with 30 girls. But it was not until 1903 that the school was given public rights, and the institution was characterized by a high intellectual level from the very beginning. In 1910 they moved to the house at Rahlgasse 4, Vienna's 6th district. During the Nazi era, the school was nationalized and Jewish students were expelled.
  10. ^ Pigeard-Micault, Natalie. "Les femmes du laboratoire de Marie Curie" [The women of Marie Curie's Laboratory]. Stanford SearchWorks. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  11. ^ W. Riegler (2023). "Summer Student Lectures - History of Instrumentation ↔ History of Particle Physics: Nuclear Emulsion" (PDF). indico.cern.ch. CERN. p. 23. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  12. ^ a b "Marietta Blau, Pionera de la física de partículas que vino a México recomendada por Einstein". DiarioJudio.com (in Spanish). 25 August 2014. Archived from the original on 29 April 2025.
  13. ^ Sime, Ruth Lewin (2012). "Marietta Blau in the history of cosmic rays". Physics Today. 65 (10): 8. Bibcode:2012PhT....65j...8S. doi:10.1063/PT.3.1728. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013.
  14. ^ "Nobel Prize – Nomination Archive: Marietta Blau". NobelPrize.org. The Nobel Foundation. 1 April 2020. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  15. ^ Sime, Ruth Lewin (2013). "Marietta Blau: Pioneer of Photographic Nuclear Emulsions and Particle Physics". Physics in Perspective. 15 (1): 3–32. Bibcode:2013PhP....15....3S. doi:10.1007/s00016-012-0097-6. ISSN 1422-6944. S2CID 120062050.
  16. ^ Perlmutter, Arnold (8 October 2001). "Marietta Blau's Work After World War II". arXiv:physics/0110028.
  17. ^ "Preisträger und Preisträgerinnen des Erwin Schrödinger-Preises" (in German). Austrian Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  18. ^ a b "Marietta Blau". Institut für virtuelles und reales Lernen in der Erwachsenbildung. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016.
  19. ^ "Nobel Prize in Physics 1950 Cecil Powell Facts". nobelprize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  20. ^ Carlson, Per (1 October 2012). "Marietta Blau in the history of cosmic rays" (PDF). Physics Today. 65 (10). doi:10.1063/PT.3.1729. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  21. ^ Halpern, Leopold; Shapiro, Maurice M. (2006). "10. Marietta Blau (1894 - 1970)". In Williams, Gary; Byers, Nina (eds.). Out of the Shadows Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to Physics. Cambridge University Press (published 17 August 2006). p. 113. ISBN 9780521821971. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
  22. ^ "Marietta Blau-Stipendium Doktoratsstudierende aus Österreich forschen im Ausland". oead.at (in German). Agentur für Bildung und Internationalisierung. Archived from the original on 29 April 2025. Retrieved 29 April 2025 – via www.fritz-bauer-institut.de/fileadmin/editorial/publikationen/jahresbericht/jahresbericht-2023.pdf p.153: Dr. Veronika Duma.
  23. ^ Halpen 1997, p. 203.

Literature

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  • Robert Rosner & Brigitte Strohmaier (eds.) (2003) Marietta Blau – Sterne der Zertrümmerung. Biographie einer Wegbereiterin der modernen Teilchenphysik. Böhlau, Vienna ISBN 3-205-77088-9 (in German)
  • Brigitte Strohmaier & Robert Rosner (2006) Marietta Blau – Stars of Disintegration. Biography of a pioneer of particle physics. Ariadne, Riverside, California ISBN 978-1-57241-147-0
  • Halpen, Leopold E. (1997). "Marietta Blau". In Rayner-Canham, Marelene F.; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey (eds.). A Devotion to Their Science: Pioneer Women of Radioactivity. Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 196–204. ISBN 978-0-77351-642-7.
  • Leopold Halpern & Maurice Shapiro (2006) "Marietta Blau" in Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to Physics, Nina Byers and Gary Williams, ed., Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-0-521-82197-1.
  • Rentetzi, Maria (1970–1980). "Blau, Marietta". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 19. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 298–302. ISBN 978-0-684-10114-9.
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