An outstanding scientist with an invention that saved billions of people but also harmed millions of others

Humanity is too familiar with the great contributions of Albert Einstein, Louis Pasteur or Charles Darwin, but there is a person with an equally important role in the process of human history that is often forgotten, that is the natural scientist. German talent Fritz Haber.

This scientist is the man behind one of the most important inventions for human civilization, specifically in the field of agriculture. However, he is also the creator of the most dangerous weapon known to mankind at the time of its birth.

Thus, his legacy remains a picture of a sharp contrast between the bright colors brought to billions of people and the dark colors that cover a crime that is difficult to wash away.

Scientist Fritz Haber

One-handed genius "slopes" the whole population chart

The story begins with the most important invention of the 20th century - a discovery that has helped feed billions of people around the globe to this day. Haber was born in 1868 in the Kingdom of Prussia into a Jewish family. From early on, he was obsessed with the idea of ​​providing enough food for humanity as the population increased rapidly.

After studying at the University of Berlin, he transferred to the University of Heidelberg in 1886 and studied under the famous German chemist Robert Bunsen. Finally, Haber was appointed professor of physical chemistry and electrochemistry at the Karlshruhe Institute of Technology. When scientists of the time warned that the world would not be able to produce enough food to feed a growing population in the 20th century, he devoted himself to the problem.

Scientists know nitrogen is important to plant life; however they are also aware that the supply of this substance in a usable form on Earth is quite limited. But Haber discovered a way to convert nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere into a compound that can be used in fertilizers - NH3.

It should be known that finding a way to create nitrogen for nitrogen fertilizers was the "golden problem" of the century. To make crops more productive, farmers began to find ways to add nitrogen to the soil, and the use of manure and later bird droppings and fossil nitrates increased. At one point, the value of bird droppings was exchanged at a ratio of 4/1 for gold.

 Fritz Haber created a homogeneous stream of liquid ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen gas.

On July 2, 1909, Fritz Haber created a homogeneous stream of liquid ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen gas that was fed into a heated, pressurized iron tube over an osmium metal catalyst. This is the first time anyone has developed ammonia in this way.

This process is known as the Haber-Bosch process for synthesizing and generating ammonia from nitrogen + hydrogen. The Bosch suffix honors Carl Bosch's achievement in industrialization of the entire process. Carl Bosch, a metallurgist and engineer, worked to perfect this ammonia synthesis so that it could be used on a worldwide scale.

In 1912, construction of a factory with commercial production capacity began in Oppau, Germany. The plant was capable of producing one ton of liquid ammonia in five hours, and by 1914 it was producing 20 tons of usable nitrogen per day.

Today, chemical fertilizers contribute to about half of global agricultural nitrogen intake; This number is even higher in developed countries.

Today, the places with the greatest demand for these fertilizers are also the places where the world's population is growing the fastest. Some studies suggest that about "80% of the global increase in nitrogen fertilizer consumption between 2000 and 2009 came from India and China".

Even without looking at population growth in China or India, the influence of the Haber-Bosch process is easy to see in the chart below. It is testament to the significant impact this discovery has on the food that feeds humanity.

The population graph is steep since the time of Haber's invention. The vertical column is the population in billions of people.

According to agricultural historian Vaclav Smil at a university in Canada, the process could be considered "the most important technological advance of the 20th century because it contributed to the food source that feeds half the population." present-day Earth".

His achievement was recognized with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918, but was strongly opposed by colleagues in the scientific world.

War "criminals"

Haber's career flourished, and around the beginning of World War I, the German Army asked for his help in developing a method to replace explosives in shell casings with toxic gases.

Unlike his friend Albert Einstein, Haber was an idiot German, and he readily became an adviser to the German War Office. During World War I, he began experimenting with the use of chlorine gas as a weapon.

During World War I, he began experimenting with the use of chlorine gas as a weapon.

By 1915, defeats on the front lines had increased Haber's determination to use chemical weapons, despite the provisions of the Hague Convention banning chemical agents in war.

Haber had difficulty finding any German military commanders who would agree to participate in a field test. One general called the use of poison gas "cowardly"; another claimed that poisoning an enemy was "abhorrent". But if that comes with victory, that champion is ready to "do what has to be done".

According to biographers, Haber then pleaded with the military to use chemical weapons to win.

In 1915, Haber was personally present on the battlefield of Ypres to oversee the use of poison gas by the Allied troops. Waiting for the right opportunity when the weather turned favorable, the Germans released 160 tons of chlorine gas from thousands of tanks towards the enemy, early in the morning on April 22.

As a result, more than half of the 10,000 men on the opposing side died instantly from suffocation. Those who were still alive then endured hell on earth with full-body torture.

Haber's weapons led to widespread use of gas masks on the battlefields of World War I

The terrible damage of this weapon made the Germans even suspicious of the enemy's quick retreat. The Second Battle of Ypres saw the casualties of nearly 70,000 Allied troops, but the Germans suffered even twice as many casualties as it was the first large-scale use of chemical weapons.

Fritz Haber was soon awarded the rank of captain, and on May 2, 1915, returned home to Berlin to attend a party in his honor. The next day, he would go to the Eastern Front to begin another poison gas attack, against the Russians.

Tragedy never ends

By the end of World War I, German chemical weapons had been largely neutralized because of the development and widespread use of gas masks by the Allies. However, Haber and the researchers involved were still heavily criticized by both sides: the Germans, for their failure; and the Allies for using inhuman weapons.

Haber's life is perhaps the classic example for the sentence "the word talent is associated with one syllable ear". On the day he returned to Germany to attend a party after the battle of Ypres was also when his first wife - also a chemist, committed suicide. She had a long period of stress over raising their child, as well as vehemently opposed to her husband's approach to war research.

As anti-Semitism grew in Germany, he lost his job.

But the tragedy did not stop there. After the death of his first wife, Haber had a trauma in his life and his career from then until the early 30s did not have too many flourishes. As anti-Semitism grew in Germany, he lost his job.

Later, Haber wandered around Europe trying to find a place to stay, but of course it was impossible because everywhere people condemned his past crimes. Haber died in 1934 in a hotel in Switzerland, before he could repent of his mistakes.

The problem is, the consequences of his talent continue years later. Around the 1920s, Haber and his colleagues succeeded in researching pesticides containing HCN - a highly toxic substance.

This research was later industrialized under two product lines Zyklon A and Zyklon B. By World War II, Zyklon B became a powerful tool in the slaughter of Jews in concentration camps - victims included Haber's relatives as well. This is perhaps his most bitter legacy, or perhaps that of any scientist of the last century.

"Haber's life was a German-Jewish tragedy - the tragedy of a one-sided love" - ​​Haber's friend, fellow Jew, and scientific colleague Einstein commented of him.