Marietta Blau

It’s the birthday of Marietta Blau, who was born in 1894 in Vienna. Blau studied physics and mathematics at the University of Vienna, where she earned her PhD in 1919. In the 1920s and 30s she pioneered the use of thick photographic emulsions to detect and characterize nuclear reactions. In 1937 she and her student Hertha Wambacher discovered so-called disintegration stars, the patterns left in emulsion when cosmic rays slam into and break up the nuclei of atoms in Earth’s atmosphere at high altitude. One year later, following Nazi Germany’s absorption of Austria, Blau left Austria to escape anti-Jewish persecution. Thanks to Albert Einstein’s intervention, she was able to obtain a position in Mexico. In 1944 she moved to the US, where she continued to work on nuclear emulsions. She finally returned to Austria in 1960. Despite her achievements and despite having been nominated for the Nobel prize by Erwin Schrödinger, Blau was never elected to the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She died destitute in 1970 of cancer.

Date in History: 29 April 1894