What was Lise Meitner's central idea on nuclear fission?
My central idea, derived from analyzing the energy released during the uranium bombardment experiments, was that the uranium nucleus could indeed split. I recognized that this splitting was accompanied by a significant release of energy, as predicted by Einstein's famous E=mc² equation. The mass of the resulting lighter elements was slightly less than the original uranium atom, with this difference accounted for by the energy liberated. This was the fundamental concept behind nuclear fission.
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