All of the following discoveries/inventions were made by the same scientist:
* The Haber-Bosch process for Nitrogen fixation - multiplying world food production many times by enabling the production of chemical fertilizers.
* The basis for the theory of adsorption - enabling us to make all manners of purifiers, and understand how virii and the human body work.
* The weaponisation of chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas. He was a proponent of chemical warfare till his death, and personally oversaw the first deployments of chemical weapons 100 years ago by Germany in WW-I.
This was my WTF moment for the month! What do you do about the legacy of such geniuses, who simultaneously committed themselves to both good and evil? The Haber-Bosch process is vital to international food security, and is mentioned in every high school textbook in the world. Are we honouring this mass murderer by teaching his name? Can we right this wrong by renaming the process and purging his name from textbooks? Does rewriting history change history? Does erasing him change the fact that half the Nitrogen in my body will continue to come from a process he invented?
http://chemicalweapons.cenmag.org/who-was-the-father-of-chemical-weapons/
* The Haber-Bosch process for Nitrogen fixation - multiplying world food production many times by enabling the production of chemical fertilizers.
* The basis for the theory of adsorption - enabling us to make all manners of purifiers, and understand how virii and the human body work.
* The weaponisation of chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas. He was a proponent of chemical warfare till his death, and personally oversaw the first deployments of chemical weapons 100 years ago by Germany in WW-I.
This was my WTF moment for the month! What do you do about the legacy of such geniuses, who simultaneously committed themselves to both good and evil? The Haber-Bosch process is vital to international food security, and is mentioned in every high school textbook in the world. Are we honouring this mass murderer by teaching his name? Can we right this wrong by renaming the process and purging his name from textbooks? Does rewriting history change history? Does erasing him change the fact that half the Nitrogen in my body will continue to come from a process he invented?
http://chemicalweapons.cenmag.org/who-was-the-father-of-chemical-weapons/