Astronuc said:One could look for "fusion","discovery".
Nuclear fission is the process of splitting an atom's nucleus into two smaller nuclei, releasing a large amount of energy. Nuclear fusion is the process of combining two or more smaller nuclei to form a larger nucleus, also releasing a significant amount of energy.
The main difference between nuclear fission and fusion is the direction of the reaction. Fission splits atoms while fusion combines them. Additionally, fission is the process used in nuclear power plants to generate electricity, while fusion is still in the experimental stage and has not yet been utilized for large-scale energy production.
Nuclear fission was discovered in 1938 by German physicist Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann. Nuclear fusion was first achieved in 1932 by British physicist Ernest Rutherford and his student Mark Oliphant.
Some notable experiments related to nuclear fission and fusion include the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs using fission, and the Joint European Torus (JET) project, which is currently the world's largest experimental fusion reactor.
Some influential theorists in the field of nuclear fission and fusion include Enrico Fermi, who developed the first nuclear reactor, Hans Bethe, who made significant contributions to the understanding of nuclear fusion in stars, and Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who developed the nuclear shell model to explain the behavior of atomic nuclei.