the.com/nuclear fission

means The splitting of a heavy atomic nucleus into smaller nuclei, releasing a large amount of energy in the process.

from 'Nuclear' comes from Latin nucleus, 'kernel' or 'little nut,' the dense core at the center of a thing. 'Fission' comes from Latin fissio, 'a splitting,' from findere, 'to split' or 'cleave' — the same root that gives us 'fissure.' The physics term was coined in the late 1930s, when scientists borrowed the biological word 'fission' (already used for cells splitting in two) to describe the newly discovered process of a uranium nucleus breaking apart under neutron bombardment — a deliberate metaphor, cells dividing becoming atoms dividing, just with vastly higher stakes.