INJUSTICES DONE TO WOMEN SCIENTISTS

In the not so far past many injustices were done to women scientists only because they were women or for their nationality reason.

Mileva Maric-Einstein has established relation between mass and energy in the shape of equation E=mc2; Lise Meitner first confirmed it experimentally; Cecilia Payne showed

application of such equation in the sun and stars; and Rosalind Franklin identified

double helix of DNA and answered the essential question about the beginning of life on

the earth. Fatefully, all of them were withheld deserved glory only because they were women or because of their nationality, while their closest male coworkers deserved Nobel Prizes.

Simo Jelaca, Ph.D.

Mileva – student Mileva & Albert Einstein

Mileva Maric-Einstein (1875-1948)

Mileva Maric-Einstein, together with her husband Albert Einstein, are creators of Theory of Relativity, famous equation E=mc2, by which they have defined correlative relation of mass and energy, and the Photoelectric Effect. Named Serbian Marie Curie, Mileva Maric has been withheld the Nobel Prize just because she was a woman of orthodox faith. Mileva Maric was born in Titel, secondary school, studied in Novi Sad, and studied mathematics and physics at the Swiss Polytechnic Institute in Zurich 1896-1900, as a single woman in generation at the time. From Novi Sad gymnasium, as an “insulated swallow” among male colleagues nicknamed “Saint Mileva”, she brought her favor for physics and mathematics, musical gift, and a wish to be scientist. She also carried the maternity instinct and a grace to her husband and family, as a Serbian woman. In the beginning of her study her professors were skeptical about her as a woman and Serbian, but fortunately, Mileva had undeceived them soon. At the university she became sociable, made friends and then fell in love with her colleague Albert Einstein, to whom she will marry on January 6th, 1903. Mileva was an excellent student, and after finishing university she obtained the assistant position with professor Friedrich Weber (1).

Enchanted with discoveries of radioactivity 1890 (Henry Backerel), x-ray 1895 (Roentgen), secondary x-ray 1896 (Mihailo Pupin), radium and polonium 1898 (Marie & Pierre Curie), Mileva got the idea of converting the mass into energy. As an exceptional mathematician all her imaginations she converts into the works of permanent civilization value. Albert realized that he had cooperated with genius. Only his mother Pauline Einstein, Jewish of reach origin, pathologically hated Mileva, and spoke that Serbian of

orthodox faith can not enter their “decent family” (2).

At first lectures in mathematics with professor Hermann Minkowski Mileva and Albert got interested in four-dimension geometry “Space-Time”. Soon after, Mileva spent winter

semester 1897/98 at the Heidelberg University, where she studied photoelectric effect with professor Phillipe Lenard, fascinated with speed of atoms and distance on which they collide. After that, she mathematically defined Electromagnetic theory of light, and from 1901 to 1905 Theory of Relativity (3), which will Albert publish all in the Annalen der Physik journal 1905 only under his name, and for the Photoelectric Effect obtained Nobel Prize in physics 1921. In that period their first daughter Lieserl was born, before they had been married, which Albert tried to hide, so Mileva gave her for adoption in Kac, near Novi Sad. Well-known Novi Sad’s benefactor Dr Laza Markovic insisted not to write about it (4, 5). Rumors do exist that Albert even never saw his daughter. Later, two more sons were born: Hans Albert 1904 and Edward 1910. Both have been christened at Nikolajevska church in Novi Sad, and to both the Godfather had been Dr Laza Markovic. Hans Albert, later, became professor at the Barkley University, while Edward suffered signs of schizophrenia, due to which Mileva had to spend the rest of her life. From those years Albert became cruel to her, he called her with the worst insulting names, and even beat her (6). Hans Albert hasn’t spoken to his father for years, because of that (7). Albert and Mileva divorced on December 28th 1918 (some documents show that it happened in February 1919). After that, Albert got married a second time with his niece, his uncle and aunt’s daughter (2, 8). During many years of successful cooperation, 1905-1907, Einsteins used to visit, and even lived in Novi Sad, at Kisacka street 20. Editor of Annalen der Physik Russian physicist Dr Abraham Joffe confirmed in 1905 that he happened to witness the original works of Mileva and Albert Einstein, signed as Mileva Einstein-Marity, which was a hungarized form of family name Maric, during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The same signature of Mileva existed in her marriage documents.

Numbered western authors cite Mileva as Einstein’s first wife, only, while some of those even discredit her (9, 10) in order to prevent Einstein’s name as the greatest discoverer in human history. However, since his divorce from Mileva till his death 1955, he hasn’t given anything important to world science (11). It is known, as well, that Einstein’s brain had been left for scientific investigation of genius, although nothing has been discovered (7).

Ellen Goodman cites words of Dr Stachel who said: “We had a myth about Einstein as a

holy figure, while now-a-days more and more about demons. We had a myth about his wife as nobody, while now her image is offered as a myth of a martyr woman” (12). Ellen further tells that in his life Albert, after all, hasn’t been Einstein. When American physicist Dr Ewan Harris Walker, at the annual meeting of Association for scientific improvements in New Orleans 1990 asked who was the real founder of the Theory of Relativity, it stirred-up scientific spirits in the world (13). German Troemel Ploetz confirmed that Mileva Maric-Einstein has defined Theory of Relativity mathematically, for sure (12). It’s tragic that the dissertation of Mileva Maric at the Swiss Polytechnic Institute disappeared (one can say it has been removed), so that it can not ruin Albert’s image even in the future, and remove him from the throne on which he has been placed by deception.

Carol Barnett compares Mileva Maric with Marie Curie, who worked and shared the Nobel Prize with her husband Pierre Curie, while Mileva had been treated completely differently (14). Desanka Trbuhovic-Djuric wrote about her tragic life (15). Wife of Hans Albert Einstein Frieda Knecht, tidying the apartment of Einstein’s in Zurich, after Mileva’s death 1948, found letters of Albert and Mileva. When she wanted to publish it in 1958 she was forbidden by detectives Otto Nathan and Robert Schumann (6).

After all, the light by which Mileva had lighted planet Earth and allusions to the possibility of use of space energy in benevolence is coming out slowly, but surely, and we can expect it wouldn’t be such a far day when scientific world will disclose the merit acknowledgement to the real genius. So far, due to professor Dr Svenka Savic the bust of Mileva Maric stands at the Novi Sad University campuses, from 1994 “Mileva Maric” Prize for best students in mathematics has been instituted, and one street in Novi Sad bears Mileva Maric’s name.

Lise Meitner (1878-1968)

Lise Meitner was the first in the world who experimentally succeeded in fission of atoms, by releasing huge amounts of energy, according to Einstein’s equation E = m c2 . The Nobel Prize hasn’t been awarded to her just because she was a woman and Jewish. Her long standing coworker and “friend” Otto Hahn intentionally has misinformed Nobel Comity about her contribution, and took the prize for himself and Fritz Strassmann. Only in the newest biography of Lise Meitner written by Ruth Lewin Sime 1996 (16), her real contribution has been described, and the element of the Periodic system of elements, atomic number 109, has been named Meitnerium in her honor.

Lise Meitner belongs to a Vienna Jewish family, where officials prohibited education at university to females, at her time. Besides that, Lise entered Vienna University 1901. Enchanted by the extraordinary lecturing of professor Ludwig Boltzman, she oriented herself for physics. She worked at the Berlin University from 1907, where she soon after attained prestige and confidence. At scientific meetings Lise was sitting in the front rows with Albert Einstein and Max Plank. Max Plank was Lisa’s mentor for her doctor’ degree. She studied radioactivity of radium, thorium and actinium, as well as beta radiation. Lisa also isolated the most stable isotope protactinium.

At the Berlin University Lise cooperated with Otto Hahn from 1926 to 1933. By the election of Hitler for Chancellor of Germany, Lise had been fired just because she was Jewish. Kurt Hess, organic chemist, has organized her persecution to Sweden, by the support of her “friend” Otto Hahn. Lisa’s persecution was very hard. She had been lonely, without her own laboratory and office, without any assistant, and she did not even speak Swedish. Besides everything she continued to cooperate with Otto, even though she knew what he did to her. In Sweden Lise directed her research towards the neutrons of uranium. Otto Hahn was experimenting with the same thing, and whatever he got he had asked Lise for the explanation. Their opponents in fundamental research were Irene Curie, Frederick Joliot and Pavle Savic. Lise Meitner in Sweden and Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Germany have comparatively bombarded uranium core with slow neutrons of barium, for what reaction Lise has given the explanation. On the eve of Christmas Lise Meitner met with her nephew Robert Frisch in a village near Stockholm. Based on Niels Bohr theory, she has explained the structure of uranium atom reaction with barium, on the snow, and defined the conclusion that slow barium neutrons enter the reaction with uranium core, while the fission occurs. Her conclusion was based on the fact that the weight of newly created matter was less than the sum of entering matter, and a huge amount of energy has been released. Then she calculated the released energy, which was in correlation with Einstein’s equation E = m c2. She also recalled her first meeting with Albert Einstein in Salzburg 1909, by which occasion Einstein told her that loss of mass should be about 1/5 of uranium proton mass. Lise Meitner with Robert Frisch proved the first reaction of uranium fission. They called it Fission, according to the English expression for the division of cells in biology. Her explanation Lise sent to Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, but they published it immediately, as their own, on January 6th 1939. Lise did not rush to publish her work, so it appeared five weeks later, on February 11th 1939, although too late for the priority. Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann haven’t even mentioned Lisa’s name in their publication, as an obligatory respect.

When 105-th element of Periodic system was discovered it was named Hahnium but it

has been changed 1997 into the name Dubnium, according the place in Russia where it

was discovered.

Lise kept good relations with James Frank, for 50 years, so when Frank mentioned at their 80-s that he was in love with her, Lise answered him “Too late”. Based on Lise Meitner discovery the first atomic bomb has been made, although she expected it to be used for peaceful purposes. Her nephew Robert Frisch happens to be a member of a team Project Manhattan. Albert Einstein once said that Lise Meitner is Germany's Marie Curie.

Cecilia Payne (1900-1980)

Cecilia Payne was a woman, who first proved the composition of sun and stars, as well as reaction in them. She was born on May 10th 1900 in Wendover, England, in the family of intellectuals. She studied at Cambridge, where, after the lecture of Arthur Eddington, she oriented herself to astronomy. Cecilia did doctor’s dissertation with professor Shapley, at Harvard University. Prior to that professor Theodore Lyman refused her, just because she was a woman. Even her professors told students not to attend her lecturing, and professor Ernest Rutherford even told students to laugh at her (17, 18). Out of all experts only astronomist Edward Milne supported Cecilia and cared for friendly relations with her. Being boycotted Cecilia left Cambridge 1923 and moved to Harvard. Fortunately, she remained consequential to herself.

Cecilia Payne spoke Latin, Italian, Greek, German, French, and English. She has been interested in the formation and lasting effects of the sun and stars. At her time it was known that gases, which freely flow between star spaces progressively, thicken, forming the mass in which nuclear reactions occur. Those spheres get so thick that they form suns in which orbits rotate planets. It was believed that two thirds of the sun mass consists of iron. From the time radioactivity has been discovered scientists started to believe that uranium is present in the sun, and it continuously burns. Elements in the sun were identified by spectral analysis.

Cecilia Payne has been very imaginative. She had imagined herself being in the sun, where the solution came out much simpler. Her enthusiasm had exploded. Cecilia Payne worked on spectral analysis of stars. At that time calculators did all computing, and persons who were doing it were called computers. At Harvard University hundreds of thousands of specters were analyzed. Some of the workers even did not understand what they were doing. Cecilia, nicknamed Mrs. G, by her marriage family name Gaposchkin, noticed that those specters that overlap could be dually interpreted. Her interpretation can be compared with a sentence in which words are not separated: not everyone will get it, fully elaborated in her dissertation, as a new theory of interpretation of specters.

Supposing that two thirds of sun is iron, dual spectral lines will be read:

Heysaidironagaien, with one letter e added. Cecilia concluded that it was a question of

Hydrogen, as a main constituent of the sun (90% Hydrogen and 10% Helium). Even before she defended her dissertation her results started to be discussed among scientists, astrophysicists. By that theory Cecilia Payne became the first in the world who has explained composition and reactions in sun and stars. In addition, she pointed out that iron, as a stable element, can not emit energy according Einstein’s formula

E = m c2 (17).

Cecilia Payne also has explained the way of rising-up high temperatures in the sun, which confused many scientists, even her mentor. Therefore, professor Henry Noris Russell had insisted on Cecilia to write in her dissertation: “Such enormous quantities of hydrogen in the sun are at any rate unrealistic”. Only a few years later, after other scientists concluded similarly, Cecilia’s professors got silenced, but never apologized to her. According to Cecilia Payne suns and stars are enormously large energy pumps, which can radiate billions of years by Einstein’s formula E = m c2 (17). Her explanation is that hydrogen in the sun is getting thicker and its temperature increases, such that its cores join and form helium. As Lise Meitner had explained in such a reaction fission of atoms takes place, therefore, part of mass is converted into energy. By that 2 + 2 is not equal to 4. The difference is about 0.7% less of the mass that converts into energy. Cecilia Payne found that about 4 million tons of hydrogen is converted into energy in the sun every second. Since the duration of our sun is about 11 billion years, one can imagine what quantity of energy we are thinking about. In comparison, the first atomic bomb used only a few ounces of uranium, but it destroyed the whole city of Hiroshima and its reflection could be seen to the distance of Jupiter.

According Einstein’s equation and the theory of Cecilia Payne (17), by further thickening

of helium in the sun its temperature rises-up to 100-million oC and forms carbon. Further on, follows the formation of oxygen, silicon, etc. Those processes finalize with the collapse of stars, but that seems to be their destiny (18).

Cecilia Payne has lived until her daughter became astronomer and two of them jointly

have published a few scientific works. Dr Owen Gingerich from Smithsonian Center for

astrophysics of Harvard University wrote about Cecilia Payne’s dissertation: “The most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy” (18).

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)

Rosalind Franklin was the first who discovered and defined the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) 1952, the component of chromosomes, the carrier of genetic information, by which she has explained the transfer of hereditary properties and gave the key explanation of the beginning of life on earth. Meanwhile, James Watson (b.1928) and Francis Compton (b. 1916) secretly moved information from Maurice Wilkins (b. 1916) and Nobel’s Comity, and took the Nobel Prize in medicine 1962 for themselves, while to Rosalind Franklin they haven’t given deserved recognition even after her death.

Rosalind Franklin was born in July 1920 in England, studied chemistry at Cambridge University and from 1951 worked as an assistant to professor John Rendall. She decided to be a scientist at her 15th, and received an examination at the university at 18th year of age. Her father opposed her university education, but fortunately her aunt had paid for it. As soon as she finished university, she decided to do her doctor’s dissertation. By her 26th year of age, Rosalind already published five scientific works. She was the first to apply the crystallographic method of the x-ray for the definition of structure of biological molecules. By that method she has defined the

structure of DNA in the form of a double helix. When she gave her unpublished results to James Dewey Watson and Crick Maurice Wilkins, for supervision, they kept it and published it as their own 1953, without her knowledge. Watson and Wilkins presented themselves to the world as authors of double helix of DNA, omitting any recognition to the real author Rosalind Franklin. Rosalind Franklin has worked three years in France, and after returning to England 1950 continued at King’s College in London. At that time, it was forbidden for females even to dine with men at the same restaurants (19). King’s College forbade Rosalind Franklin 1953 to do research work on the structure of DNA, after which she had to switch to viruses. In the new field of investigation Rosalind Franklin successfully published 17 scientific works, and practically founded the new scientific discipline Virusology. While visiting the United States it has been found that Rosalind Franklin had cancer. Besides that, she continued to work until a few months before her death in 1958. She died at her 38th year of age. It is known since 1952 that DNA is the carrier of all life information, although the Nobel Prize was not posthumously awarded to her (20).

Literature:

1 Neil Eshleman: http://carbon-cudenver.edu/stc-link/bkrvs/satclose/einl.htm

2 Mileva Maric-Einstein: http://ucl.ac.uk/stc/cain/pubs/revryc.htm

3 Film (documentary): Einstein's wife, Geraldine Hilton Producer, Melisa Films Pty

4 Milan Beric: Private letters, 2003

5 Milan Beric: Extract from the book “Einstein’s daughter”, author Michele

Zackheim, Riverhead Books, 1999

6 Elizabeth Einstein: Hans Albert Einstein, University of Iowa, 1991

7 Carolyn Abraham: Possessing Genius, The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein’s Brain

8 Hajduk (pseudonym): http://Teslasociety.com/einstein.htm

9 Colin Bruce: The Einstein Paradox, Helix Books, 1997

10 Carl Secling, translation of Sanja Bargmann: Ideas and Opinions, Crown 1999

11 Simo Jelaca: Mileva Maric – Povratak iz anonimnost, http://vojvodina.com

12 Ellen Goodman: Out from the shadows of “great” men, The Boston Globe, 1990

13 Evan Harris Walker: The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, 1990

14 Carol Barnett: comparative Analysis of perspectives on Mileva Maric-Einstein

(doctor’s dissertation), 1998

15 Desanka Trbuhovic-Djuric: U sencio Alberta Ajnstajna, Bagdala, Krusevac, 1995

16 Ruth Lewin Sime: Lise Meitner – Biography and a Battle for Ultimate Truth, 1996

17 David Bodanis: E = m c A biography of the world’s most famous equation,

Walker & Company, New York, 2000

18 Owen Gingerich: Cecilia Payne – Gaposchkin Astronomer and Astrophysicist

19 David Ardell: Rosalind Franklin (internet).

20 Simo Jelaca: Velikani koji su obelezili civilizaciju, http://www.Prezimenik.co.yu

21 Milan Beric: Privatna pisma, 2003

22 Milan Beric: Navod iz knjige “Ajnstajnova kcerka”, autora Michele Zackheim,

Riverhead Books, 1999

23 Elizabeth Einstein: Hans Albert Einstein, University of Iowa, 1991

24 Carolyn Abraham: Possessing Genius, The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein’s Brain

25 Hajduk (pseudonym): http://Teslasociety.com/einstein.htm

26 Colin Bruce: The Einstein Paradox, Helix Books, 1997

27 Carl Secling, translation of Sanja Bargmann: Ideas and Opinions, Crown 1994

28 Simo Jelaca: Mileva Maric – Povratak iz anonimnosti, http://vojvodina.com

29 Ellen Goodman: Out from the shadows of “great” men, The Boston Globe, 1990

30 Evan Harris Walker: The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, 1990

31 Carol Barnett: comparative Analysis of perspectives on Mileva Maric-Einstein

(doctor’s dissertation), 1998

32 Desanka Trbuhovic-Djuric: U sencio Alberta Ajnstajna, Bagdala, Krusevac, 1995

33 Ruth Lewin Sime: Lise Meitner – Biography and a Battle for Ultimate Truth,

1996 (Internet).

34 David Bodanis: E = m c A biography of the world’s most famous equation,

Walker & Company, New York, 2000

June 2005

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