Chemistry - Pros and Cons

I recently read a very interesting article in The Cambodia Daily. It was in the Science section of the 4 November 2013 edition. The article spoke about a conference that will be held in Germany next week. Scientists from around the world will gather at this conference to discuss the impacts (positive and detrimental) that the industrial production of ammonia has had over the past 100 years.  One hundred years ago a German chemist named Fritz Haber invented a process using nitrogen taken from the atmosphere as the key ingredient to produce ammonia. This was just in time for farmers who were globally facing a shortage of natural fertilizers for their crops. This process and the resultant production of industrial quantities of ammonia fertilizer are credited by some as starting the “green revolution” and saving billions of lives. This process also is believed to have extended WWI by at least one year by creating nitrogen compounds such as saltpeter, which was used by Germany as gunpowder. In addition, the process has contributed to the world’s pollution problem since the ammonia process releases toxins into water sources and the atmosphere. Haber has been described as an ardent German nationalist and advocate for gas weapons. Because of his advocacy Germany was the first to use chemical weapons – killing 6,000 French Allied troops. Haber’s wife, who strongly disagreed with his position in favor of chemical weapons, took her own life one week later. Three years later Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry a decision that was met with widespread indignation from scientists and country diplomats from Britain, France, and the United States. Because Haber was from a Jewish family he was expelled from Germany and he died in 1934 in Switzerland. One of the insecticides that Haber developed was also used by the Nazis to kill more than 1 million people including many from Haber’s family. The Haber process (now known as the Haber-Bosch process) is still used today and produces more than 100 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer per year.   Interestingly, just last week I met a German woman who now lives in Thailand. Her great grandfather, August Kekule, was a brilliant scientist and principal founder of the theory of chemical structure. He is highly regarded for his work on the defining the structure of benzene. Three of the first five recipients of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry were students of Kekule.