Fritz Haber: Great Minds
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 гру 2024
- Hank introduces us to the brilliant and heartless Fritz Haber, a great mind who is considered "the father chemical warfare," but who also made discoveries and innovations that helped lead to the Green Revolution which is credited with preventing the starvation of over a billion people.
Like SciShow on Facebook: / scishow
Follow SciShow on Twitter: / scishow
Sources:
www.nobelprize....
www.npr.org/pro...
www.scientifica...
science.howstuf...
www.bbc.co.uk/n...
www.theglobalis...
www.idsia.ch/~j...
www.vision.org/...
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
www.britannica....
Images:
commons.wikimed... [public domain]
commons.wikimed... [public domain]
en.wikipedia.or... [public domain]
www.nasa.gov/ce... [public domain]
www.ers.usda.go... {public domain]
"Still, Germany's defeat was a crushing blow to him personally, and he vowed to pay off all of Germany's monetary war reparations by himself... by extracting gold from seawater."
...a bit unhinged, but not the worst reaction by a long shot...
No I got to say I feel this is a man I feel a certain respect for. Sure he made weapons but apparently there were people making gas weapons on the entante side too.
that side actually learned from their enemies.
He wasn't completely crazy, there are millions of tons of gold dissolved in the ocean. The problem is it's soooo dissolved, that you'd only get a microscopic amount of gold from a large amount of seawater
@@biteme9486 HOly fuckin hell did SOMEONE JUST SAY GOLD!?
@@biteme9486 not only that but it's monatomic so it doesn't have the lattice structure of the gold most people recognize.
From Wikipedia: " Nevertheless Haber left that same morning for the Eastern Front to oversee gas release against the Russians. Haber left behind his grieving 13-year-old son Hermann, who had been the one to discover his dying mother."
OH GOD ITS EVEN WORSE!
Scott Fabricant I'm just glad the nutcase ended up saving more lives than he took. What kind of person shows that kind of apathy towards someone he (apparently, and hopefully) once loved? Clearly his brain broke from some sort of blow to the frontal lobe in a sword fight or something.
@@joshuahunt3032 it's apathy and a lot of people have it as a self defense mechanism against emotional trauma
so, he became a monster, aiding the murder of countless lives and even his own family, and driving his wife to suicide. all this and he pressed on till his end, all for his country he loved so much that ultimetly betrayed him. harsh.
Haber famously said that a soldier is just as dead no matter how he dies in war. His argument was that he had saved German lives by killing entant soldiers. Isn't that how the US usually justify using the a bomb? That the cost in lives of it's soldiers would have been so great if their were to invade. only those were civilians not soldiers. As I see it this guy seems like a Robert Oppenheimer just less nasty.
@@DaDunge Regarding Openheimer, Westerners often see Hiroshima as a sin and evil act.
In the end, it is, as it killed so many innocents. However most Asians don't see it that way. Asians who were abused and ravaged by the Imperial Japanese Army.
It really is a complex situation, instead of a clear cut "good or bad" thing.
A true patriot and hero
@@CursedDepartmentEastOffice I agree. History is written by winners.
@@DaDunge America is the best!
"Science isn't good or bad. It's only true." I will keep that in mind, sir.
Sometimes it's not true..
No real scientist would ever claim science is true. It's only a process by which one can search for truth.
Some questions should not be asked ... like 'experiments' of camp 731 for instance
You still gotta know what's good or bad tho. Need to keep that spiritual wellness up☝️
"During peace time a scientist belongs to the World, but during war time he belongs to his country." Fritz Haber
I would say it easy for us to criticize this man, but we don't seem criticize the scientist of the Manhattan Project for their creation.
Eeerm, yes we do. A lot. The Manhattan Project was one the most controversial scientific endeavors you could have come up with
Manhattan project itself is controversial, but the scientist themselves are not. Fermi(who came up with idea itself), Oppenheimer, Bohr, ect are all very highly esteemed(as they should be). Even Teller doesn't seem to get the same hate this guy does.
Many people criticized Manhattan project. Tolkien once said that scientists who created atomic bomb were totally crazy
A. The Manhattan Project was greatly critizied
B. Haber worked for the germans during WWI
Darckseyes I wasn't commenting on the project, but the people were not demonized. Nobody every questions whether Feynman should have been given his noble prize, or call Oppenheimer evil. And for your B comment I know when and for who Haber worked for, my point I think a lot of Haber hate comes from the fact that he worked for the losers.
about the Zyklon compounds:
A, B, and C are internal categorizations by the manufacturer. The active ingredient is just hydrogen cyanide, absorbed into powder, in german called Kieselguhr [some form of silicic acid or other silicon compound], and then let evaporize. Product A just had a warning odour added to it, which then was removed in the further products, B and C. Product A was mainly used in agriculture.
Is it bad that Fritz Haber was one of the figures that inspired me to go into Chemistry in the first place?
NOPE,as long as you are inspired by only his work in chemistry and not his political leanings
Political leanings? Serving his country? How is he different than Oppenheimer?
The difference is Oppenheimer showed great regret for his creation as did many of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project. Arguing that someone's deeds and actions are just because they used them , in their mind, to serve their country is a very slippery argument. The argument would see some of the worse acts in history justified like Hitler's drive to create a strong and pure Germany controlled world, the brutalities of colonialism and slavery, and to the rise of ISIS today. All of these people where in their own mind serving their country or political ideology but that does not make their acts any less "evil".
Brendan L First of we don't know what Haber felt near the end, secondly Oppenheimer feeling regret did not unmake his actions, and unlike Haber Oppenheimer's invention slaughtered civilians while Haber's was a weapon of war. Granted a Horrible weapon of war but still used to kill soldiers who were otherwise going to kill soldiers on his side.
political, ethical and moral leanings.
@ 9:00 "...science isn't good or bad, it's only true"
I love you Hank. Such a simple statement, and so right. Why is it so hard for people to grasp?
"He Who Must Not Be Named did great things. Terrible, yes... but great." -Ollivander, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", film adaptation
Kind of reminds me of this in a way.
You may say the same things about Oppenheimer.
By far and away the best episode of sci-show I have ever seen. More please.
I'd like to just thank Hank and all involved in the production at scishow for another marvelous episode. Your videos teach me so much and spur a proactive interest into the world of science.
I did chemistry in high school and I want to thank Hank for learning me more of this than my teachers could in two complete years...
Great summary of the book "Alchemy of air". I highly recommend that on audible.
Incredibly inspirational video and in particular the conclusion, thanks Hank and all of SciShow staff.
I just came back from my regional Science Olympiad.
THANKS SO MUCH, HANK, FOR MAKING THIS VIDEO!
I watched this a few days before today, and the whole tiebreaker question (for Chem Lab) was answered by this video!
hank sounds so sad
I noticed that too, maybe this Fritz is just a depressing guy! lol
maybe he is jewish descendant?
KagirinaiYonaka or he's a human being....
Big Smoke I think he's of human descendent.
Glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. It sounds intentional, this video's topic is rather grim.
This deserves an Emmy. Wow great job Hank
As harsh as it may sound, without war we would have never, or at least not today, had such technological advances.
That's quite a bold statement. You don't know how many youn men of Haber's abilities were killed in wars.
The demand for nitrogen based chemicals was heightened through the war, but then again most of those chemicals were used to make explosives. At some point the recources would have run out and Haber or someone else would have figured out a way to synthesize them.
We thankfully haven't used chemical weapons in a long long time and I'd say that chemical research hasn't halted because it.
War pushes genius and invention. In WW2's Manhattan Project, we learned so many things about the atom and such in a short span of time. That would had taken generations to discover without the war. Perhaps without WW2, we would be in the dusk of the atomic age today.
I think that without war are technical possibilities would have much greater than today.
Nah, war pushes for advances in warfare technology. Would war have developed vaccines for diseases? Or cures for diabetes and other diseases found only in old age and rarely found on soldiers in battlefield? I'd say no
This episode of scishow made me cry. Especially the closing statements.
5:57 Well, Nobel invented dynamite to have a saver and more reliable and predictable explosive for mining operations because before his invention people regularly exploded transporting or attempting to use extremely unstable Nitroglycerin which exploded on the smallest of disturbances. Just imagine having to transport such an extremely volatile substance in a card or wagon over cobble stone roads and the rough terrain of a quarry that could end your life in an instant by turning you into a fine red mist in the blink of an eye.
When he realized what his invention was being used for he was so horrified that he used all his wealth he made from dynamite to sponsor the Nobel Prizes to awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind" and chief among them was the Nobel Peace Prize to be given for the promotion of peace and mutual understanding around the world.
Now, this is an interesting biography...
His daughter was alive as of 2015 but I don't think she has made any public comments
9:06
"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
"war ... war never changes"
also an episode on carl friedrich gauss would be nice for "great minds"
greed of money never ends , brainwashing never ends
Wow that part at the end was deep by far the best of the sci shows IMO
"The Science doesn't care. It's up to us to decide what we do with it." Great lines for the ending. Kudos
Father of toxic gas, and chemical warfare
His dark creation has been revealed
Flow over no man’s land, a poisonous nightmare
A deadly mist on the battlefield
Such a banger
There is positive side in anything negative..and negative side in anything positive. Like this: fertilizers helped to save many people from famine, but those saved people then started to breed like rabbits, thus we have overpopulation and all problems associated with it.
Not quite that simple, really. One way to work towards a solution would be to reclaim all the as-yet non-usable land. Having done that, then the whole issue of breeding can be tackled properly. Fact is, though, that this is what has happened throughout evolutionary history - not quite as drastically as with humans but still ... it's been there.
John Hughes awesome
sounds like you slipped on wet doggy caca -and then posted something angry & stupid.
wow I've probably watched 200 of these scishows. and I gotta say, this was the best one I've seen. wow
This is one of the best Sci Shows I have ever seen!!!!!!! Great closing piece about how it all depends on us. Good job!
There’s a little too much hating on Haber in this video (by 5:53). You step on a bunch of ants, Haber gases a bunch of Frenchman, who is to say which is morally more correct?
Gilbert Lewis (1923) credits Haber’s Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Phase Reactions (1905) as a “model of accuracy, of critical insight, and the first systematic study of all the thermodynamic data necessary for the calculation of the free energy changes in reactions”. That’s respect.
So? WW1 isn't WW2 there isn't a definitive bad guy. This was war and this guy was serving his country just as any soldier on the battlefield did, but with his own set of abilities.
Chemical warfare had already been outlawed by international treaty, signed by Germany, prior to WWI though.
Alexander Cressman Really? I have always heard that it was due to ww1 that such weapons became illegal, I would ask that you provide a source for your claim.
Also I would like a source on Germany being the first to use such weapons since as far As I know the French were the first to do so.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hague_Conventions_of_1899_and_1907
He knew he was trying to come up with ways to kill by the masses, that is not just a soldier, a soldier is someone who follows orders but still acts human and kills when it's a "kill or be killed" situation. This guy was not just a soldier at all
@@alexandercressman3420 and so did the allies but it didn't stop them from using them , and by the way the first use of chemical weapons in war was by the French in 1914 in which they used xyxyl bromide on the Germans . And technically Germany did not violate the terms of the treaty as the Hague conventions did not prohibit CW in general but said that no projectile would be used to facilitate such weapons and Germany used canisters so therefore they were abiding by the law it was only after the war that the Geneva protocol 1925 and CWC 1972 were signed banning all such weapons, so do some research before making a fool of yourself.
imagine if Germany won the war; he would be a hero !
what a beautiful ugly world we live in.
money=evil , evil loves brain washed idiots
andooorly such truth
he is still a hero, his work led to feeding the world, his gas warfare led to development of mustard gas which led to first chemotherapeutics
He wouldn't have because he was Jewish. They renounced him and other Jewish German scholars, including a number of Nobel Prize winners.
@@MsBhappythey said if Germany won. If Germany wins ww1, nazism most likely wouldn't have gained nearly as much traction in post ww1 germany, and with it the massive escalation of antisemitism would be very unlikely to happen
The saddest I've ever seen Hank :(
Also, you should totally do a video on James Clerk Maxwell - scientific BAMF
That bit at the end made me tear up a little bit. ;.; You are a good speaker, Hank. :)
Haber-Bosch, the great alliance
Where’s the contradiction?
Fed the world by ways of science
Sinner or a saint?
Father of toxic gas, and chemical warfare
His dark creation has been revealed
Flow over no man’s land, a poisonous nightmare
A deadly mist on the battlefield
So sad... yet so ironic, so funny and sad at the same time. I don't know what to think about this world anymore.
I think I'm going to write an essay on this wonderfully abominable man.
How was he any worse than Oppenheimer?
+Fredrik Dunge Well, atleast Oppenheimer is one reason we do not have so many conventional wars going on, well, he did not do that directly, but still, nuclear deterrent and whatnot
Mazaroth Then you may say that Haber is the reason we have the geneva protocol.As for balance of terror that applies to gas weapons too, despite the terrible nature of ww2 no side used them, because they knew that if they then their enemies would.The framework for how to treat gasweapons became the foundation for the MAD doctrine.
Fredrik Dunge It is ironic, that the weapons became the limitations themselves, i am not saying that it is a completely good thing that they exist, but the clouds have a silver lining.
sir why don't you do a great mind on micheal faraday.
You mean Michael Schumacher -how he zips around in that silly race car. Agreed!
no I actually mean micheal faraday scientist to create the electric motor
Hmm, never heard of him. Maybe you're talking bout Michael Buble? Really good singer.
He clearly said Michael Faraday, the great scientist whom contributed to the study of electromagnetism and even chemistry. Just because you never heard of him,doesn't mean he doesn't exist. No need to be annoying to him by referring him to other michaels.
This is what happens when you are a Tory Mountain.
It's kind of incredible how much the production value and Hank's on-screen personality has developed in the last three years!
so we watched this today in science class and it went perfectly till the end
my teacher wasn't mad and what i found is your crusing is actually making them pay attention so thank you
Heh... this guy is the poster child for the brilliant mad scientist.
Hanks melancholy delivery in this episode has me rollin
Thanks, this actually helped me with my essay xD
I hope you backed it up with real sources because this is so mired in the american perspective that it make me want to barf.
I enjoyed the commentary and perspective in this episode. The closing lines were very well put.
I pulled this video up 2 days ago and just got around to watching it because unlike other videos I could tell it was going to be long and wasn't sure if it would be worth my time. But needless to say, you delivered again and that was an incredibly interesting story. Sorry I doubted you.
Make a video about Avoagrado. Avogrado's number. Plus I'm staring Chemistry this year in school and I still understand the concept.
that's something that numberphile might have already done
Liza Bell
Yes! I would love to figure out how he managed to figure that one out. It's... perplexing. Especially considering he did it in the 19th century.
EDIT: Fixed my terribly erroneous dating mistake.
Frederik Jones Sorry, but I think you mean the 19th century (1800-1899). We are now living in the 21st century. It is just like you lifecycle: I am 44 years old, yet I live in my 45 year of life. When a person is born, he/she starts with the first year of life and then celebrates the first birthday and the baby is one year old.
Haber oh dear.....oh dear that guy is so messed up o.o
We've studied the haber process for producing ammonia at school...
I don't think I'll look at it the same way..ever again.
But his story is so ironic..
I think the best word is sad. In the west the ww1 generation is often called the lost generation but it's way more true in Europe, especially in Germany.
Also the Canadian Corp launched an incredibly brave and effective counter attack after the first gas attack and having 80% casualties
This was a great episode. I enjoy the great minds who had so much impact on history. Keep up the awesomeness.
I admire the fact how he knew so much or did so many extensive research just to tell us viewers( of course for his own knowledge intention) still appreciate it i enjoy watching :)
Have to agree on the last few line" science isn't good or bad,its only true,science doesn't care,its up to us"
Does anyone else find it ironic that his nitrogen fixation process that he designed to kill people has saved more lives than any other chemical reaction in history, while his chemical that he didn't intend for killing was turned into one of the most horrific chemicals used to commit mass genocide?
It wasnt designed to kill people...thats simply wrong. They all were on the search for guano replacements because the sourcing dwindled and it was a real problem. Ww1 or even the effort towards it isnt even in the realm at that point.
So it wasnt a mad scientist looking for weapons as there was no war. I dont onow, where he has his information from, but Veritas did a better job on the timeline.
It was later, that ww1 broke out and some time into it germans had no supply on gunpowder...so they used the nitrade not as fertilizer anymore, but used it as weapon. It isnt biased to say, that haber was patriotic at that point and convinced that germany wins. To make efforts to end war more quickly is the problematic mindset that he know grew. He thought that it is beneficial for both sides to be done with it more quickly and at this point he was above all things like a maniac possibly. He went with chlorine gas and they lit those candles.
Always remind yourself though: France and Britain, etc. wanted good chemical weapons as well to kill the people in the trenches, because the stalemate war at that time was a burden on all sides. He was faster...and noone really knows what led him, what the general climate was back then.
So...you can argue if he was sane and searching for fertilizer and later on they weaponized it or if he was insane all along, which there is no real motive to begin with as war wasnt there.
The zyklon b thing really adds. So, you can by no means say, that an onsane monster created weapons and by accident feeded all of us today...Its definetly the other way around. Still a crazy story.
The effects today are well known since decades and noone does a thing. Thats why we as people on this planet arent too far off of even an insane evil....as we dont do and only galk about doing and how it is wrong...and yet I am writing on my phone that costs 1000 bucks. Pretty ironic and I for myself wouldnt take a moral highground these days...as all himan kind is inherently evil in that regard at least. The difference between us and him is that he wanted to find fertilizer as it was neccessary to not starve the world already at 1.5 billions and we cannot even pick up our own trash, but have moral highground over everything that is happening, because it was all older people that made all these inventions.
Crazy..because history will talk about the next inventors the same way depending on the outcome.
And some stories are additionally told by the victors.
I watched the Richard Feynman video right before this, and can't help noticing that if you replaced Haber's name with Feynman, and exchanged chemistry for quantum mechanics, you'd have essentially the same story, just told a different way. Haber was an asshole, Feynman a prankster. If Germans had won the war, I'm sure they'd have the opposite view.
If the germans had won ww1 then the world would be a very diffrent place. First of WW2 would never have happened, secondly instead of republics we'd have a lot of constitutional monarchies across europe. Perhaps bound into some sort of restored Holy roman empire instead of the EU.
Anyone else think he murdered his wife and faked her suicide when she threatened to leave him? Not like the guy was exactly shy about murder.
Yeah, if she was going to actually committed suicide, why shoot herself in the chest?
+DJ Grumbles Exactly what I thought as soon as I heard it
+HyperJ Gaming maybe so that she could shoot here heart because she had no love to the guy or to stop blood pumping 1 reason seems a bit unreal and not scientific I'm not sure which one hm...
***** depends on the gun
HyperJ Gaming well, as long as it fires bullets
1,000 times yes! I've been asking for this ever since I saw the Oatmeal comic about him.
Cool episode. I really like that you're including some scientists who were "great" but not necessarily good, and teaching us about both the good and the bad that come from certain discoveries. Rock on.
What about the fact that Fritz Haber's mustard gas was the first step towards chemotherapy.
@@mitzvahgolem8366 It's true. Mustard gas is the predecessor to Methotrexate, which is now used in Chemotherapy. Fritz Haber is a genius who like many great men unfortunately cared about the welfare of his nation more than the world. The same could be said for Robert Oppenheimer, who helped pave the way for nuclear and eventually hydrogen bombs. In that same sense Oppenheimer should be regarded as even more heinous because as the father of the nuclear bomb, he paved the way for at least 180k to die in Japan and the cold war which lasted until 1991.
@@gobyus6600 yep but the cold war might have been a teensy bit worser if here were no nuke. the threat of MAD would not have existed. just the existence of those bombs prevented them from fighting all out but rather through proxys
Thank you for this episode, I keep being intrigued by Fritz Haber because I doubt any human in history has saved AND killed as large numbers of people and he is one of the opposite (i.e. does good by accident) examples of intention and outcome not being the same.
I don't take a very moralistic point of view about warfare. Humans have been doing it for thousands of years. It's only in more modern times that intelligent people realise warfare can't go on. He was a patriot who wanted to defend his people and homeland
There is a very distinct difference between defending the homeland and developing weaponized chlorine and mustard gas.
believe what you want. The allies used the same technology against the Germans
Ben Jones After Haber invented it.
No there really isn't if you can find a way to kill enemy soldiers before they kill you soldiers than war is really the term for it.
One of the best episodes yet.
Your dedication and enthusiasm is contagious! And to my surprise I actually understand at least something of what you tell (the left part of my brain is a walnut). Thank you for the "moral" in the end of this episode🙏🙏🙏 Important!
This is an amazing video. Informative (about chemistry, my favorite!), thought provoking, and interesting. Haber really is a good guy in one sense, a terrible person in another. I know his chemical discoveries helped save probably billions of lives, but he really didn't care about any of that. He was one of those disgustingly 'patriotic' people.
Hank never sounded so much like John.
Not really, John usually knows not to judge historical figures out of context the way Hank does.
I meant the tone of his voice. He sounds like John in the bitter parts of the world history CC.
***** Are you sure it's not just because he slows down a bit? ;)
You are probably right :)
10 bucks says haber killed his wife...
Shot herself in the chest after a heated argument? It's plausible but man, that is pretty damn suspicious. Not to mention that I looked for further details and it turns out that she was shot with Haber's service revolver. I can't find any mention of a murder investigation though, which is strange because by today's standards it was definitely warranted.
There's every chance she did kill herself and he was telling the truth, afterall the stuff I just mentioned is purely circumstantial evidence, but it's kinda scary that the police didn't atleast check to see if this very suspicious death was actually a suicide.
Loutron3030 would you like to be my lawyer?
Or she shot herself with Harber's revolver to mkae it look like he murdered her.
You owe me ten bucks.
0S7VN0 we will never know but it is suspicious as heck
Fantastic presentation.
This guy had a greater impact (both positive and negative) on humanity than the vast majority of humans, ever.
Related to this: I suggest Norman Borlaug - a great man, who also fed a billion+ people, most not his own race, and in the middle of a war - and he actually wanted to help people not kill them. Try the Penn Teller video on it for ideas.
Man. This video really suffers from cultural/historical bias, lack of context, and hindsight.
+sock2828 Yeah, tell me about it... Hank, talks about this guy's actions FOR HIS COUNTRY with disgust yet would probably praise Oppenheimer as a morally sound scientific genius, probably wouldn't call the father of the atomic fucking bomb a "dickhead"...
+Gamerat Big difference between the two. Haber saw his work and was delighted in how well it killed people. Oppenheimer saw how effective the A-Bomb was and immediately knew that it was something that should never have been made. Haber was a genius and a prick.
+Andrew Harris Great reasoning. Let's let out every savage murderer from confinement just because they feel bad about what they did. At least Haber was consistent, he knew his work and did it well. You can't expect me to believe Oppenheimer haplessly created a wmd only to become aware of it's effects after the deaths of tens of thousands. No scientist is that naive, he knew exactly what he was creating from the beginning. EXACTLY what that weapon could do to human life, I tell you. There's a reason the government hired him, and he knew exactly why well before trinity, I'll tell you that...
+Gamerat I'm guessing that the atomic bomb is all you know about Oppenheimer. If so then there is no need to continue this.
Andrew Harris That's all that's relevant to this conversation. Two rights don't fix a wrong... lol I don't mean to be cheesy, I came up with that but you know what I mean...
Not sure how he was worse than the later Manhattan Project scientists.
No he didn't... He killed British and French soldiers which saved his own German soldiers. In fact he was less evil than the Manhattan project because at least his weapons were designed to kill enemy soldiers not bomb their civilians cities.
Both are evil. Explaining one doesn't detract from another's misdeeds. If this video setup a scenario that pitted the morality of both projects, and found a winner or loser between the two, than yes your critique would be valid. This isn't grievance Olympics, nobody wins a medal for atrocities. (Unless your Nobel or Haber)
I love you Hank but you kind of told a one sided story
Michael Noland can you elaborate? Really don't know what your talking about
I believe Scishow got most of their information in this episode from an installment of a podcast called "Radiolab." It's a fantastic podcast that usually revolves around science, through great story telling. All Scishow fans should listen to it.
I really like this video, Hank. It seems to support everything you and John say about the truth resisting simplicity. How an invention that was instrumental in helping all seven billion of us humans be able to survive on this planet was discovered by a man who had such horrifying morals, and a terrible sense of responsibility with the great mind he was born with. This knowledge would probably make me a lot more depressed if I didn't understand that the truth almost always resists simplicity.
Why are you talking so slowly and depressively?
Because, using science to do harm is depressing.
Its not that bad, its not like he is advocating it
... That's fucked up.
You know what would be an adorably awesome way to thank your science teacher for all this? Do a Great Minds about him!
That was great, subscribed. Looking forward to looking through your back catalogue.
And in that battle, the Second Battle of Ypres, in the middle of some of the most horrifying days of the First World War and the most effective use of gas warfare the world has ever seen, that one of the most beautiful pieces of war poetry ever was written by a Canadian lieutenant after presiding over the funeral of a dead friend. 'To you from failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high'
Borlaug was a tri-pointed hat wearing pioneer of of introducing mechanisation as well as large scale irrigation and fertilisers to developing nations, but his main work was in GMO, such as increasing disease resistance in plants, and "dwarfing" where he made more productive wheat strains by making wheat with fatter, shorter stalks and bigger heads (giggity) which were adapted to tropical climes. 95% of Mexico uses Borlaug wheat and the harvest was 6 times higher than previous wheat grown there.
Wow, helped invent Zyklon B - a name that makes me shudder and brings tears to my eyes every time i hear it because of the vivid mental images it produces of the pellets being poured on people. Wow.
you don't know how much I love your channel :)
I thought this was one of the most interesting episodes of SciShow yet!
Dear Hank, please make a video on the process of eutrophication, or how algea blooms are caused and how it effects the enviornment, since you mention it in a lot of your videos.
One big error tho: Haber didn't invent the process to harm people tho.
All the "Hey, I can use my chemistry for the Kaiserreich" only became a thing when WW1 already started (about 5 years after the Haber-Bosch process was already commercialized).
Hank, I love these shows so much.
Hank's presentation was so good I had tonwatch this twice. Excellent video, educational, and I laughed at the censored remarks.
I learned about him from Penn & Teller's Bullshit years ago when they played that episode and it makes me sad so many don't know about him and his amazing work.
There is also a Radiolab episode on Alan Turing. The scishow episode focuses on the same points of his life and work as the Radiolab episode did.
Just listen and compare please before you comment, it's the rational thing to do.
You guys HAVE to do one of these segments on Thomas Midgley! Talk about a scientist who caused damage with his best intentions!!
Great Scott Hank, that intro was great I'm hooked.
A dark, yet interesting history. Thanks for shining the light of unbiased scientific understanding onto a subject that is so often riddled with spin, history.
this is one of your best videos
you guys should make an episode that explains the whole nitrogen cycle and all with the plants and water pollution because I want to learn more about that
There's a mistake in this video, if I may address that. Haber did focus on finding a solution for resolving hunger first:. Haber first demonstrated the synthesis of ammonia in 1909, 5 years before the war even begun. His first experiments with gas warfare took place in 1915.
Before speaking so hastily about great minds that have fed the world, I would first google Norman Borlaug, a TRUE hunger fighter.
As a graduate student in plant breeding and genetics, i really appreciated your episode on Gregor Mendel, thank you!
0:36 i have to correct because i live here
It was Breslau when it was german city.
After war the name was changed to polish Wrocław.
5:01, 2012's hank was hilarious 😂😂
Love these vids! Keep them coming!
I just went on to the Nobel prize site for Fritz Haber. There is not one mention of chemical warfare. In fact, there seems to be almost no mention of what he did during the wars.
The Haber Bosch process is like everything in my physical chem course in college! We didn't go into Haber too much though.
Neat, I didn't ever focus on that kinda thing in school. Was never my interest. But I'm glad I at least do read or watch things from time to time outside of my focus and learn about more. I would never have learned about Norman Borlaug had I not. I seriously hope Sci Show does a "Great Minds" on him.
it is highly unlikely that Haber's process was not motivated by the need to feed the world, considering the fact that Germany was scarcely capable of producing enough food to feed half the population at the time. the readily available nitrate salts can be used to synthesize munitians with much greater ease than ammonia. we can best think of Haber as the man who fed billions
Yeah I was thinking about that too, John Green said that WW1 was about getting food for the German population, Hank seems to think that this guy was more interested in waging war than in getting what was the end goal of the war itself.
Another complex angle to the story is that his invention of the “dangerous” nitrogen mustard aka mustard gas is extensively used in chemotherapy and has helped save millions of lives. Another unintended effect that he couldn’t have foreseen when he just wanted to be patriotic…