Description
A sweeping history of tragic genius, state of the art science, and the Haber-Bosch discovery that changed billions of lives–including your own.
On the morning time of the twentieth century, humanity used to be facing global disaster: Mass starvation used to be about to transform a reality. A call went out to the world’ s scientists to find a solution.
That is the story of the two men who found it: brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they found out a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, and saved millions of lives.
But their epochal triumph came at a price we are still paying. The Haber-Bosch process used to be also used to make the gunpowder and explosives that killed millions throughout the two world wars. Both men were vilified throughout their lives; both, disillusioned and disgraced, died tragically.
The Alchemy of Air is the atypical, up to now untold story of a discovery that changed the way we grow food and the way we make war–and that promises to continue shaping our lives in fundamental and dramatic ways.