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A Troubled Trajectory Brigitte Strohmaier, Robert Rosner. Marietta Blau: Stars of Disintegration: Biography of A Pioneer of Particle Physics. Dvorak. Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture and Thought Series. Riverside: Ariadne Press, 2006. 220 pp. $27.00, paper, ISBN 978-1-57241-147-0. Reviewed by Richard H. Beyler Published on H-German (January, 2008) In this biography of nuclear physicist Mariet‐ As portrayed by Strohmaier and Rosner, ta Blau, physicists-turned-historians Brigitte Blau's biography serves as a poignant illustration Strohmaier and Robert Rosner portray a scientific of the injustices inflicted by the Nazi regime. Im‐ career tragically entwined with the troubled plicitly also, their book is a plea for a partial recti‐ twentieth-century history of Austria. Within a few fication of this injustice in the form of a greater months of the most exciting discovery of her ca‐ recognition of, and appreciation for, Blau's path- reer in the summer of 1937, Blau had to leave her breaking work. Indeed, Blau's name is hardly native Vienna in March 1938. For a couple of known apart from a handful of experts in the his‐ decades she had patiently and diligently worked tory of nuclear physicists: Her biography bears a to establish herself as a frst-rank experimentalist. certain resemblance to the perhaps better-known Just as this effort had reached fruition, the Nation‐ story of Lise Meitner.[1] Blau takes on a central al Socialist takeover of Austria, echoed in the in‐ role in Peter Galison's history of instrumentation ternal political machinations within her own cir‐ in particle physics, as well as in Maria Rentetzi's cle of scientific colleagues, made her professional recent study of female physicists in early-twenti‐ and even her personal future in Austria unten‐ eth-century Vienna.[2] Compared to Galison's and able. Briefly in Norway, then for several years in Rentetzi's more historically contextual presenta‐ Mexico, and fnally in the United States, Blau tions--Galison in terms of the interplay between eventually resumed her successful scientific tra‐ theoretical and experimental practices, Rentetzi jectory, but her biography remained poignantly in terms of the gender relations within the and even painfully marked by a sense of deraci‐ nascent feld of radiation research--Strohmaier nation and marginalization. Returning to Vienna and Rosner take a more personal approach, draw‐ in the fnal years of her life, Blau received only a ing extensively on correspondence, primary partial welcome home. source accounts, and first person commentaries. H-Net Reviews Marietta Blau was born in 1894 to an upper- tion for Blau outside of Europe, specifically in middle-class, professional Jewish family in Vien‐ Mexico City. na. She obtained a doctorate in physics in 1919 Blau left Vienna in March 1938 and, after a under the direction of Stefan Meyer of the Insti‐ brief stay in Norway, moved to Mexico with her tute for Radium Research and Franz Exner of the mother, taking up a professorial appointment at Second Physics Institute, concentrating on the still the National Polytechnic Institute. Although her relatively novel phenomenon of radioactivity. Af‐ time in Mexico was enjoyable in many respects, ter brief stints as an industrial physicist in Berlin Blau faced at best erratic fnancial and material and at the University of Frankfurt, Blau returned support, and essentially discontinued her pro‐ to Vienna in 1923 to look after her ailing mother gram of cosmic ray research. She was an active and obtained a position at the Radium Institute. member of the German-speaking émigré commu‐ Under Meyer's leadership, the institute proved a nity in Mexico, among other things forming a congenial scientific home for Blau and (rather friendship with the author Anna Seghers and her atypically for the time) several other women sci‐ family. But life in exile also brought to the fore entists. Of these, Elisabeth Rona and Berta Karlik her marked reserve, what one friend called "an became particularly close to Blau. She also began almost pathological modesty," which sometimes a series of collaborations with a junior colleague, made practical life outside of the laboratory a Hertha Wambacher, on the photographic method struggle (p. 60). in experimental nuclear physics. Subatomic parti‐ In 1944, Blau obtained permission to immi‐ cles such as those released in natural radioactivity grate to the United States. Following a couple of or in various nuclear reactions being discovered rather unhappy years in industry, she was pleased apace in the 1920s and 1930s will, under the right to obtain work in the accelerator laboratories of conditions, leave tracks on photographic flm. Columbia University and then a contract from the Blau developed a number of improvements to this Atomic Energy Commission at the Brookhaven method that enabled an analysis of these parti‐ National Laboratory on Long Island. Although cles' properties. In 1937, Blau and Wambacher Brookhaven was a scientifically rewarding envi‐ made their most spectacular discovery: stars of ronment, Blau found the atmosphere competitive multiple particles given off in nuclear disintegra‐ and not always in accord with her particular in‐ tions caused encounters between high-energy cos‐ terests. The decade she had been shunted away mic rays and nuclei in their emulsions. This dis‐ from the physics mainstream was showing its ef‐ covery brought Blau and her work to the atten‐ fect. Symbolic of this setback was the fact that in tion of fgures such as Erwin Schrödinger, Werner 1950 Cecil Powell won the Nobel Prize for further Heisenberg, and Albert Einstein. development of the photographic emulsion tech‐ But by this time, the political climate for sci‐ nique that Blau had initiated. In 1956, she left entists of Jewish background in Austria was al‐ Brookhaven for an associate professorship at the ready becoming tense. The tension was particu‐ University of Miami, where she successfully estab‐ larly acute within the Radium Institute, several of lished a particle physics laboratory. In 1960, in‐ whose members were sympathizers or secret creasingly suffering from health problems, Blau members of the Nazi Party (then illegal in Aus‐ moved back to Vienna. tria), including Blau's junior partner, Wambacher. Her return to Austria had some rewards, par‐ Even before the Anschluß, Einstein used various ticularly in working with a series of talented stu‐ personal connections to fnd a more stable posi‐ dents and a series of official awards, but many disappointments as well. She perceived an indif‐ 2 H-Net Reviews ference among Austrian colleagues to the previ‐ for thought about the reciprocal relationships be‐ ous disruptions to her career: scientists who had, tween individual psychology (the evidently highly in effect, taken over the Radium Institute under introverted aspects of Blau's personality), organi‐ Nazi aegis now held professorships, whereas her zational behavior at the local level (the evidently position there was (still) unpaid. Always reserved, messy internal dynamics of the Radium Institute), she apparently developed few close personal rela‐ and broader social and political themes (the tionships, and those with some of her earlier Aus‐ changing status of women in the sciences and im‐ trian colleagues, such as Karlik, experienced new pact of political ideology at key junctures). Histori‐ tensions. Her health became increasingly frail in ans of central Europe in the last century will fnd the late 1960s, and she died in 1970. here a lens on the experience of exiles and re‐ The structure of the book is somewhat uncon‐ turnees. Though these issues are here more ad‐ ventional. The frst two-thirds or so are a bio‐ umbrated than analyzed, the degree and diversity graphical narrative, which includes numerous ex‐ of personal detail in this book makes a valuable cerpts from Blau's letters. A series of vignettes by contribution towards understanding an unfairly several of Blau's colleagues and students follows. neglected biography. The fnal section--apart from the back matter--is a Notes more detailed discussion of Blau's scientific work. [1]. See Ruth Lewin Sime, Lise Meitner: A Life Evidently, the intention of the authors and pub‐ in Physics (Berkeley: University of California lisher was to provide a non-technical account for Press, 1996). non-physicists, while not neglecting relevant sci‐ [2]. Peter Galison, Image and Logic: A Materi‐ entific details. As indicated in the preface to the al Culture of Microphysics (Chicago: University of English edition, the biographical section has been Chicago Press, 1997); and Maria Rentetzi, Traffick‐ expanded from the German edition, with more in‐ ing Materials and Gendered Experimental Prac‐ clusion of primary source extracts, while the sci‐ tices: Radium Research in Early 20th-Century Vi‐ entific-technical section has been revised for enna (New York: Columbia University Press, more accessibility.[3] In the biographical section, 2007), published only as an e-book through Guten‐ indented and specially marked paragraphs are berg-e (http://www.gutenberg-e.org/ ). also included with background information on various topics mentioned in the text, such as the [3]. The German version appeared as Mariet‐ political climate in Austrian universities or the ta Blau. Sterne der Zertrümmerung (Vienna: Böh‐ history of Columbia University. Moreover, the lau, 2003). book includes a separate series of endnotes con‐ taining capsule biographies of various persons ap‐ pearing in the narrative. This complex format‐ ting--marking material as more central or more peripheral to the main narrative, or as more per‐ sonal or technical in character--makes for some‐ what choppy reading. But it does enable the au‐ thors to include a variety of material that paints a vivid picture of a life in science in politically trou‐ bled times. For historians of science, the material pre‐ sented in this volume provides interesting food 3 H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-german Citation: Richard H.
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