Fritz Haber
publication date: Monday, August 8, 2022 (part of Summer 2022)
category: Science
clue: Half of the world is alive today thanks to this chemist's genius, but few showed up to see him accept his Prize after his war-changing invention the year before.
explanation: Haber developed synthetic fertilizer, without which the soil on Earth would only be able to support half of the world's population today. But he also developed chemical weapons like chlorine gas that killed over a million people in WWI in the year before he was awarded a Nobel Prize in a sparsely-attended ceremony. more…
intended difficulty: hard
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, and Richard Slominsky