Marietta Blau
A groundbreaking jewish austrian physicist
- Maria Blau (1894–1970)
Marietta Blau was an Austrian physicist who overcame discrimination as both a Jew and a woman. Born on 29 April 1894, she studied physics in Vienna and eventually focused on cosmic rays, using mountain expeditions and high-altitude balloons for her research.
Her discovery of “disintegration stars” (star-shaped traces of several particles originating from a single point), which revealed the splitting of heavy nuclei in the atmosphere, was groundbreaking. The political situation in Austria in 1938 forced her to flee, first to Mexico and later to the United States, where she continued her work despite lost years. Her lifelong exposure to radiation ultimately led to her death from cancer in 1970.
Learn more about
The scientist
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Marietta BlauWikipedia
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Leben und Wissenschaftliche Laufbahn inkl. Publicationen (DE)Universität Wien
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Die ergessene Pionierin der Kernphysik (DE)Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
The science
- Nuclear emulsion plate explanation: CERN Courier
- What are cosmic rays: University of Chicago
The illustration
Drawn by Nuriya Nurgalieva: Website
