"Fritz Haber- a Nobel laureate in chemistry, a friend of Albert Einstein, a German Jew and World War I hero- may be the most important scientist you have never heard of. The Haber-Bosch process, which he invented at the turn of the twentieth century, revolutionized agriculture by converting nitrogen to fertilizer in quantities massive enough to feed the whole world. The invention has become an essential pillar for life on earth; some two billion people on our planet could not survive without it. Yet this same process supplied the German military with explosives during World War I, and Haber orchestrated Germany's use of an entirely new weapon- poison gas. Eventually, Haber's efforts led to Zyklon B, the gas later used to kill millions- including Haber's own relatives- in Nazi concentration camps."
Talk about truth being stranger than fiction....
Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber,The Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare, by Daniel Charles (HC, 2005, $3.50)
Look for this in the biog. section, avail. 2/3.
