august november later known american physicist helped build nuclear atomic bomb age youngest female member team built experimented world nuclear called pile chicago project led mentor particular woods instrumental construction analysis experimentation woman present went critical worked manhattan_project husband subsequently helped solve problem poisoning production site supervised construction operation production war fellow later worked princeton new_jersey professor research involved high energy physics divorced marshall married nobel professor staff member later life interested ecological environmental issues devised method tree rings study climate change strong advocate food means killing harmful bacteria early life born farm illinois august second children lawyer wife sisters brothers graduated received chemistry university_of_chicago age passing qualifying exams chemistry approached nobel prize physics graduate student having impressed talk gave zones accepted told young professor warned jewish academic death warned woods woman death despite fact look took warning seriously decided instead graduate student day nobel allowed choose research problem edited final version appeared doctoral thesis bands prepared supervision polish chemist accepted later recalled twice told taught wasted students noted agree highest praise manhattan_project finishing writing thesis youngest pre war students working fellow students involved war work met working swimming afternoon anderson discovered woods adept vacuum technology research soon phd finished hired work measure group constructed nuclear known chicago stands field university abandoned football stadium woods played want woman involved dirty work placing blocks woods plenty work small stack measure effects source foil obtain measure cross section order woods woman present went critical asking scared remembered woods tall young girl built like athlete man job woman physicist group time mother endowed energy running small farm near chicago relieve woods work divided time potatoes like scientists working project woods affected casual attitude danger posed radiation morning containing mixture salt metal woods absorbed white blood cell count doctors gave lecture woman fixed number egg cells proposition woods skeptical considered important thing correctly team moved new home dormitory woods married july soon fell pregnant told agreed let know fear insist leave building covered pregnant belly work clothes rode work day army bus arriving morning barely time starting day work child boy called peter born returned work days later team hand large produce bombs watched shifts day shift night shift ending midnight swing shift left peter mother powered successfully hours power level dropped shut speculated water leak problem radioactive poison night operators able power die away pointed radioactive poison working numbers slide rules hand determined cross section poison turned fortunately engineers equipped cent fuel tubes called loading managed started asked years later felt involvement manhattan_project said think terrified wrong way developing bomb germans ahead persistent present fear fed course fact leaders knew people germany went school leaders terrified terror fed germans got don know happened world different germany led field physics respect time war set hitler lowered boom frightening time certainly recall felt atomic bombs brother law captain scheduled harbor brother marine flame okinawa sure people lasted invasion pretty clear war continue half million fighting men dead japanese know know general curtis tokyo mentions slaughter happened think nagasaki hiroshima compared wrong regrets think right couldn differently yeah know suggested second bomb nagasaki necessary guys cry shoulders war death don think stand ask right post war career war returned university_of_chicago fellow working chicago pile heavy water found way percent spin beams determined index materials second child born assistant professor died separated returned effectively single mother fellow princeton new_jersey following year fellow time focus research physics shifting away nucleus elementary particles joined associate professor physics professor years later professor researching high energy physics staff member worked divorced married won nobel prize later joined ucla visiting professor environmental studies engineering engineering mechanical nuclear engineering known interested ecological environmental issues devised method hydrogen tree rings study changes temperature rainfall patterns hundreds years records kept opening door study climate change like strong advocate food means killing harmful bacteria advocated legal regulatory restrictions use relaxed proposed instead sprayed fruit affected mediterranean fruit fly treated gamma rays prolific author publishing scientific papers wrote paper works include autobiographical people history early atomic research died edited papers published life work nobel paper quasi stellar objects appeared died medical center california november induced stroke survived sons peter john grandchildren second marriage selected creation atmosphere moon environmental problems timely importance people crane upside lack solar life work nobel carbon dioxide climate past climates tree people texas
Leona Woods