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墨書 Inktalez
This may be the most extraordinary Nobel Prize in Chemistry in history.
This scientist single-handedly solved a severe problem that humanity has faced for thousands of years, enabling human reproduction and shaping the world we live in today.
However, when he received the award, he was met with derision from everyone present, and there were even protests against the awarding of the prize. This is the story of Fritz Haber, the most talented yet tragically misunderstood scientist in history.
Let us turn back to the mid-19th century, when the global trade in bird guano was booming. Off the coast of Peru, millions of seabirds gathered, their droppings accumulating into mountains.
Soon, the guano business exploded, with prices soaring to $76 per pound, meaning that just four pounds of guano could be exchanged for a pound of gold. But why were people so eager for bird guano at that time? To understand this, we must look inside the human body.
Human DNA contains five chemical elements: hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus.
Among these, nitrogen is not only a necessary element for amino acids that make up proteins but also a part of hemoglobin and a core component of DNA and RNA. Therefore, all life on Earth depends on nitrogen.
While we obtain nitrogen through plants and animals, plants can only absorb it from the soil.
After years of cultivation, there will inevitably come a day when the nitrogen in the soil is depleted, preventing crops from growing healthily and leading to reduced food production.
To increase the nitrogen content in the soil, bird guano containing up to 20% nitrogen is required.
With the rise of the Industrial Revolution, global demand for nitrogen surged. By 1872, there was very little guano left.
At that time, British chemist William Crookes made a dire prediction: if the world could not find another way to obtain nitrogen, humanity would face mass starvation.
The problem is that nitrogen is not lacking in our surroundings; for example, 78% of the air is nitrogen. However, these nitrogen molecules are formed by two nitrogen atoms bonded together with a triple bond, which is very strong and cannot be directly absorbed by humans or plants.
To utilize it, one must either break this triple bond through lightning strikes to decompose it into individual nitrogen atoms or form nitrogen oxides that react with water droplets in the atmosphere and fall to the soil.
This is what we refer to as relying on nature or using bacteria in the soil to break chemical bonds. However, this process cannot produce nitrogen compounds on a large scale.
Chemists continuously sought methods to convert nitrogen gas into usable forms, conducting extensive experiments.
Ultimately, in 1904, German chemist Fritz Haber discovered an efficient method during one of his experiments.
He first placed a small piece of goose feathers into a pressure vessel, then subjected nitrogen and hydrogen gases to high pressure and heat.
Under these extreme conditions, Fritz Haber found that the nitrogen gas, with goose feathers as a catalyst, would undergo bond breaking and combine with hydrogen atoms, allowing humanity to synthesize ammonia for the first time in a laboratory setting.
Subsequently, Germany's largest chemical company, BASF, commercialized Fritz Haber's process.
Thus, the invention of nitrogen fertilizers ushered humanity into a new era, not only quadrupling food production and feeding billions but also contributing to a population increase of 4 billion over the following century.
It can be said that our current way of life owes much to Fritz Haber's invention.
However, why was such a remarkable achievement overlooked at the Nobel Prize ceremony?
The answer lies in World War I.
When the war broke out, Fritz Haber voluntarily joined the military. Unlike pacifists like Einstein, Fritz Haber was an extreme patriot whose purpose in enlisting was to use his talents to help his country achieve victory.
Months after the war began, the German army quickly ran out of explosives.
Since ammonium nitrate was not only an excellent fertilizer but also a potential explosive, Fritz Haber decided to use ammonia as a raw material to produce nitrates for explosives, transforming his factory into Germany's arsenal.
From air-quality bread to air-quality explosives, Fritz Haber believed that chemistry could make a greater contribution to warfare.
In December 1914, he attempted to create a heavier-than-air lethal gas at low concentrations to sink into enemy trenches, focusing his efforts on filtration systems.
Although he faced strong opposition from everyone at the time, Fritz Haber firmly believed that if the war could be ended more quickly in this way, it would save countless lives.
In April of the following year, as a gentle breeze blew towards the Allied trenches, it released 168 tons of vibrant gas, which quickly swept through the entire Allied camp.
Any soldier who inhaled the gas would experience a horrific death.
The gas would severely irritate the mucous membranes of the lungs, causing them to fill with a foamy liquid, ultimately leading to suffocation in extreme agony.
According to incomplete statistics, over 100,000 soldiers died from Fritz Haber's chemical weapons during World War I.
This misuse of science brought him immense controversy and criticism, and he was even regarded as a war criminal at one point.
Ultimately, in 1934, Fritz Haber passed away from heart failure in a hotel, marking the end of a legendary yet contradictory life.
While his scientific contributions cannot be denied—without nitrogen fertilizers, global agriculture would not have survived—he also used his knowledge to invent the infamous chemical weapons.
What should future generations think of him? Was he right or wrong? Was he an angel or a demon? Who can say for certain?
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