ipl-logo

Leona Woods And Enrico Fermi On The Manhattan Project

1577 Words7 Pages

Leona Woods Marshall Libby was an American physicist that’s most famous for her work alongside Enrico Fermi on the Manhattan Project to create the first atomic reactor. Leona Woods was born in 1919 in La Grange, Illinois. In 1938, Leona graduated from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry at the age of 19. Leona was only 23 years old and in the book by Sanger, she was “the only women present when Enrico Fermi’s nuclear pile at the University of Chicago went critical and into the history books” (Sanger). Leona was one of the few females on the project and at this time it was probably very difficult for a woman to get accepted the way she did. Later in life Leona worked on astrophysics, cosmology, and environmental …show more content…

In 1942, Leona Woods joined the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago at only 23. This made Leona the youngest of Professor Mulliken’s PH.D students. The United States led this project during World War II to build the first nuclear weapon. While much of this project was classified and not published we were able to find some information about what was done during this time by great scientist. She was the only female in her group, one of the very few females to be a part of this project, and probably one of the most famous. While being very hands on in the project and taking on huge responsibilities Leona never got to lead a part of the project. Could this have been her own choice or was this because it would have been hard at this time for a female to lead male scientist? Nevertheless, Leona was an important part for the creation of the Chicago Pile-1 which was the world’s first nuclear reactor. She helped to calibrate the machine so that they could measure the reactor. In 1943, Leona and John Marshall, a fellow scientist married. Shortly after their marriage she became pregnant. A woman that was pregnant was not supposed to be working where she was and could be forced to leave. Her and Enrico became very close and she trusted him with this secret and she began to come to work in baggy clothes to hide it to others so she could continue her work. This was unusal for her as in pictures prior we see Leona as a well-dressed female in her blazers and skirts. Leona was very dedicated to her work and wanted to be there as much as possible. However due to some complications, Leona decided to go to the hospital a couple days before the due date. She was experiencing high blood pressure and she turned out to have the child there. Leona could not stay away from her work and returned after only a week. This only proves how hard of a worker she was and probably why she was able to accomplish so much during

Show More
Related

  • Truman's Decision To Drop The Atomic Bombs

    1889 Words  | 8 Pages

    The Manhattan Project was started in fears that Nazi Germany was going to create the ultimate weapon, powered by the natural forces of fission. As President and wartime Commander, Roosevelt

    Read More

  • By The Bomb's Early Light Chapter Summary

    1449 Words  | 6 Pages

    Paul Boyer, the author of By the Bomb’s Early Light, has an unusually high level of expertise on the subject of atomic bombs. He is an American biochemist, analytical chemist, and a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is at the top of his field, and is a perfect candidate to write this book. Not only will he be an expert in the science of atomic bombs, but he will know the history of this kind of technology. Paul Boyer’s main idea in this book is more of a discussion of Nuclear Policy and a look back at the nuclear age.

    Read More

  • 1943 Roswell Experiment Essay

    707 Words  | 3 Pages

    1943 THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT: On Oct. 28. 1943, the US. Navy purportedly teleported the USS Eldridge, from Philadelphia to Norfolk. Va., and back again during an invisibility test that went awry.

    Read More

  • Oak Ridge Feminist Analysis

    726 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first source that will be analysed is a book, Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project, written by Ruth Howes and Caroline Herzenberg who are both physicists and published in 1999. The purpose of this source is to reveal the hidden story of the contribution of women in efforts to develop the atomic bomb. The origin of this source is valuable because the authors have done extensive research into the topic of women in the Manhattan Project and have

    Read More

  • What Are The Three Colored Women In The 1960's

    496 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the early 1960s, while equality was in place, but segregation was enforced, three colored women, who worked as NASA employees, stood up to seek out justice and challenge their limits towards the actions of white coworkers, as well as authorities, by pursuing what they believed they were meant for, and what they knew they could accomplish.  Many other people of the same race believed that force and violence were the only ways to reach the seemingly impossible goal of becoming free, however these three brilliant women believed that through a lot of hard work and tough skin, they could reach the stars. Their tasks were not easy for them and they endured many hardships along the way, and they were received tough love from many of their coworkers. For example, Katherine Johnson, the first colored woman to become a mathematician in the NASA shuttle coordinates checkers, was forced to have her own coffee pot, run for thirty minutes to a colored ladies restroom because there are none in her office building, as well as kept out of important meetings that discussed vital information about her work,

    Read More

  • Richard A. Muller's Nuclear Waste

    286 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Nuclear Waste” by Richard A. Muller, he expresses his concerns about radioactive material in Yucca Mountain that will be left behind for thousands of years and the unfamiliar dangers that we face. He starts by stating that nuclear waste is one of the biggest issues that our government faces even though they highly follow their “safe” nuclear waste disposal. He stresses how the government prototype nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain is supposed to be so safe, but they built it on a site that was created by volcanic activity. Scientist have contemplated many different ways to dispose of nuclear waste, but they all seem like the worse than their previous ideas and some still are considering more nuclear power. After his intense evaluation

    Read More

  • The Manhattan Project: Zillard And Fermi

    319 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the case of the Manhattan Project, scientists without prior working knowledge and scientific experience would not have successfully been able to produce a nuclear weapon. As the documentary shows, the experienced scientists working together were able to put forth the working knowledge that would be difficult to not only verbally describe but also difficult to transcribe (tacit knowledge). Both Zillard and Fermi came together with their different approaches, thinking styles and methods, allowing for them to both apply tacit knowledge with each other and their teams. Although General Grove’s was warned against hiring Oppenheimer as the head at Los Alamos lab, his managerial style is quite possibly one of the reasons of success among the scientists.

    Read More

  • Moe Berg Research Paper

    1289 Words  | 6 Pages

    “Moe” Berg was a man of mystery. He played in Major League Baseball(MLB) for fifteen seasons and never started; he was good, just not good enough. Moe Berg had a strong arm, nimble reflexes and soft hands, but most importantly he had the brains. Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said to the head of the spy agency, “Give my regards to the catcher”(Buchard et. al.).

    Read More

  • Alice Auguste Ball's Accomplishments

    113 Words  | 1 Pages

    In conclusion, Alice Augusta Ball has achieved many remarkable accomplishments such as being a significant person in our history for developing the cure for leprosy and making it injectable. In her ongoing research Ball was able to aid thousands in their fight against leprosy. She had also been the first African-American and women to graduate with a master's degree in the sciences from the University of Hawaii and become the first woman to teach chemistry at the university. One can say that after learning about the accomplishments that Alice Augusta Ball made and the obstacles that she overcame, she made her own path to success no matter the fact of her being dead.

    Read More

  • The Girls Of Atomic City Summary

    727 Words  | 3 Pages

    Denise Kiernan’s book, “The Girls of Atomic City”, a New York Times best seller in its first week of publication, tells the story of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A created in 1942 and one of the Manhattan Project’s secret cities that didn’t appear on maps until 1949. The town consumed more electricity than New York City and homed over 75,000 people. Many of those people were young women that were recruited from small towns in the South with promises of good pay and war-ending work. Their work was covered in mystery and workers faced job loss and eviction if they talked about work.

    Read More

  • The Manhattan Project: The Creation Of The Atomic Bomb

    626 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Manhattan Project became one of the largest weapon development programs in history. General Leslie R. Groves and US physicist Robert Oppenheimer were assigned to oversee this massive project (“Manhattan Project”2014). The project originally was headquartered in an office at the federal building at 90 Church Street in Manhattan. The project was devised in the Manhattan District Office of the Army Corps and Engineers which led to the name of the project. The initial research began at Columbia University in New York City (“The Trinity Test”

    Read More

  • How Did Sally Ride Changed The World

    1380 Words  | 6 Pages

    Sally Ride America’s Space Girl 57% of all women are in the fields of science. (Mattern 8). Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, intrigued women of all ages to become engineers, doctors, science teachers, and so much more. Men used to be the only people to tackle careers in this field. However, Ride changed the world when she became the first American woman in space.

    Read More

  • Rosalind Franklin Research Paper

    658 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rosalind Franklin is one of many famous chemists, but several things set her apart from others. She was born on the 25th of July, 1920 in Notting Hill, London. At the age of only fifteen she had decided she wanted to be a scientist. She went to school at St.Paul’s Girls’ School. At her school she showed a high interest in physics and chemistry.

    Read More

  • Nikola Tesla's Discovery Of Radiant Energy

    2457 Words  | 10 Pages

    UNRAVELING NIKOLA TESLAS GREATEST SECRET: RADIANT ENERGY If all the great inventions and discoveries of Nikola Tesla, nothing stood out with greater potential benefit to the whole of humanity than his discovery of Radiant Energy in 1889. The series of observations that led to the discovery of Radiant energy initially grew out of experiments that Tesla had conducted in an attempt to duplicate the results that Heinrich Hertz had claimed to achieve in affirming the existence of electromagnetic waves, the discovery of which Hertz announced in 1887. While replicating Hertz’s experiments, Tesla experimented with violently abrupt DC electrical discharges and discovered a new force in the process.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Banning The Atomic Bomb

    862 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rough Draft Jacob Berry In 1941, is the year the Atomic bomb changed warfare and human life forever. Many projects around the United States worked on the race to create the atomic bomb. One project, The Manhattan Project, led by Julius Robert Oppenheimer, created enough U-235 to create one of these deadly weapons.

    Read More

More about Leona Woods And Enrico Fermi On The Manhattan Project

Open Document