A closer look
Fritz Haber is the reason half the people on Earth are currently alive, which makes his legacy incredibly awkward. In 1909, he figured out how to rip inert nitrogen gas straight out of the atmosphere and combine it with hydrogen under extreme pressure to synthesize ammonia. This process created limitless artificial fertilizer, single-handedly preventing global starvation. But Haber was a fiercely patriotic cynic who immediately pivoted his genius to weaponize chlorine gas during World War I. He won the Nobel Prize for saving humanity while simultaneously writing the textbook on chemical warfare.
