As a professional science-y word type person (hey, I'm off the clock), I was somewhat familiar with the Haber-Bosch process. But I knew nothing about Fritz Haber himself, until Radiolab did a segment about him. And I have to say, I learned a lot-- rather more than I was expecting, in fact.
First some background. Nitrogen is a really really useful thing. It's one of the most important elements that compose complex organic structures, such as amino acids-- the things that make up DNA. So when you dump materials rich in nitrogen onto plants, for example, they tend to grow really well. In addition, atoms of nitrogen tend to bond very strongly to other atoms, holding on to a lot of energy in the process. When you break those bonds, you get all of that energy at once. Boom. So there has historically been a lot of interest in finding a way to produce nitrogen in a form that can be manipulated.
Those tight bonds kept it wrapped up, though, until in the very early part of the 20th Century Fritz Haber developed a process (mix this with that under these conditions in the presence of something else-- it's not really all that interesting in itself, so I'll skip the details) for producing reliable quantities of ammonia, which contains nitrogen and also can be much more easily combined with other things to make different products. He sold the process, and together with Carl Bosch scaled it up to produce massive amounts of fertilizer for Germany. Hooray! Food for the Germans! Spaetzle for everyone!
A good thing, right? Nitrogen fertilizers have massively increased the amount of food that can be grown on a given plot of land. Ok, so there are some environmental consequences that they didn't foresee, but I have to admit I still think that we're better off. Massive starvation is bad, m'kay? So he's a hero! Nobel Prize for Haber!
And then came The Great War. Suddenly, Germany had another use for the nitrogen-- weaponry. Explosives. So, ok, not the happiest thing in the world, but he was honored to serve his country, and that's the way it goes sometimes. But he didn't stop there. He had the brilliant idea of using the large quantities of ammonia to produce weaponized chlorine gas (despite its use being outlawed by treaty). So, all right, maybe he's getting a little too intense, here. But then he goes himself to the front lines, and personally supervises the release of large quantities of chlorine gas into British trenches. Hooray! Death to the enemies of Germany! Horrible, wretched death!
So, he's still a hero, at least in the eyes of the German military. But he's kind of starting to creep everybody else out. In fact, his first wife ends up committing suicide, presumably (although never explicitly proven) as a response to his work. His reaction? He ships out that day to the Russian front to gas more enemy soldiers.
I don't know if this is a good guy or not. Ultimately, his work has probably helped a lot more lives than it's harmed. But it's hard to get a read on his intentions. Did he want to be a hero? Did he want to save the world? Was he cold and unfeeling? Bloodthirsty? I just don't know. All I can think is that maybe he should have spent just a little bit more time considering the consequences.
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