Before this week, I had already uploaded some images to my project and was not sure how to properly cite them so I just linked them to the website where I found them. Fortunately this week explained exactly what was needed in order to post pictures. I did end up changing a couple of my pictures due to not being able to find copyright information, but I am happy with how it turned out. Using images give the project much more visual appeal and make the pages more interesting.

After looking at the gender lens project and discussion topic for next week, I am pretty excited. I get so frustrated seeing the way products, especially toys are gendered. When I was a child I did play with LEGO’s. I have two older brothers and they had huge tubs of them. My LEGO’s came in a pink bucket and were pink, purple, light blue, and white. I had one large flat piece and it was a beach. I do not remember what the people looked like, but I do know they were the same shape and size as my brothers’ but they were probably female. I just wanted to play with my brothers, but they would have nothing to do with girl LEGO’s so I either played with my LEGO’s near them, or they would let me play with pieces they did not want to play with out of their tub.

After finally completing my project I can breathe a sigh of relief. I initially had some trouble finding statistical information for Austria in the late 19th to early 20th century, but I think I managed to find some useful information. Finding the exact methods for splitting an atom also proved to be a challenge. I do not understand physics nor have I ever taken a physics class so it was interesting learning about the discovery of nuclear fission and all of the people involved. There were a surprising number of women doing research on this subject, but it was Lise Meitner who was able to put all of the pieces together.

Formatting my project on this blog was not easy. First I could not figure out how to do a block quote but thankfully I discovered the “blockquote” button. It is very convenient. Next I did not know how to format the text into subheadings. After looking for quite some time, I stumbled onto the “toolbar toggle” button which revealed the Paragraph drop menu. The last issue I had was indenting the references in my bibliography. I believe the hyperlinks are not allowing me to indent.

I really enjoyed learning something new about history, technology, women, and blog formatting.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are unfortunate moments in history that were made possible by the discovery and harnessing of nuclear fission. In the simplest terms, nuclear fission is the splitting of an atom which releases large amounts of energy.  Otto Hahn, a German chemist, unintentionally discovered nuclear fission and subsequently in 1944 won a Nobel Prize.  This prestigious award was great for Otto Hahn, but lurking in the shadows was another name that many feel should have been acknowledged as well.

Austrian born Lise Meitner was raised in a large family in the late 19th century. Her family was supportive of her predilection for science and in 1907 she received her PhD from the University of Vienna. Throughout her research, she formed a decades long collaboration with Otto Hahn, which was cut short due to her being exiled during WWII. Lise Meitner learned of Hahn splitting an atom and began conducting her own tests with her nephew. They were able to make sense of Hahn’s findings and thus nuclear fission was realized.

Lise Meitner was born in 1878 and died in 1968 at 89. Her illustrious career was filled with many scientific contributions that remain vital in the scientific community. Scientista is where I first saw Lise Meitner’s name and I chose her not because I am terribly interested in physics, but because I know very little about the subject. I was also interested in the controversy around the Nobel Prize.