Let's use chemistry for good! If you want to offset your carbon emissions I will personally cover the first month of your subscription at ve42.co/Wren (for the first 100 people to sign up)
True. Like with the Atomic bomb and only for it to be the reason that there's a very long lasting peace in our time. Edit (8/4): It seems like people haven't seen my replies to the people replying to my reply. Quite funny how every single one of you has the same sarcastic question but I'll just summarize what I've said below. "It's true, there's still wars going on in the Middle east, Africa and most recently, Ukraine. BUT without nuclear war, we'll just go pre-WW2. Imagine a world where major powers with millions of men can just declare war upon another without the threat of mutual annihilation. Sure, alliances will be formed and many great powers will keep each other in check but how long will that last? No ruler's dumb enough to not realize nuclear war is mankind's end. After all, what is there to rule if there's nothing?"
@Spout Boes "Technical progress is not Social Progress." Exactly what I've been meaning to say. Never mistaken our technological progress for a moral one.
@Benni Because he died despondent, regretful, and in existential despair of the futility of it all? ("He passed away shortly thereafter at the age of 65, but not before repenting for devoting his mind and his talents to wage war with poison gasses") -Smithsonianmag
In the high school year many of us were taught this Haber- Bosch process. But to know the historical tale of it is very satisfying and chilling at the same time. Thanks veritasium for enlightening us.💕
As a kid of 90s, born and raised in Bulgaria, I remember my father plant tomatoes, cucumbers and other veggies, so I clearly remember that he mixed soil with farm chicken poo, add water and that was more than enough to grow those vegetables. And honestly that was the tastier veggies I ever eat.
Where did he get the chicken feed from though? Chances are there's artificial fertilizer in that chain. There doesn't have to be, but if there isn't, the yield is usually halved.
@BooBaddyBig from eating seeds, insect, etc. The chicken that eats the process feeds taste terrible. I bet you never eat organic raised chicken to ask that question.
@Nagyné Végh Csenge Yeah. That's why I add ect. Processed feeds are those food to make your chicken grow faster. In my country, people allow their chicken to run around their land and eat those thing I have mentioned plus some rice. Even they are smaller than the farm raised using process feeds, these chickens taste way tastier.
He's only considered a villain because he ended up on the losing side... Just look at how many are considered heroes for killing enemies in wars. So if he was on the winning side he'd be considered a hero too.
That's kind of an awkward thing to say given that he died while seeking a new place to stay after having to flee Nazi Germany. The reality is, of course, that the whole notion of unambiguous heroes is naive because most people are way more complex.
@Cute Lethal Puppy well, not only this, as shown in the vid, he also helped make deadly weapons, without him, the chances of these weapons NOT existing(at least back then) was so high, so, he killed millions, and still do, not because it's him doing it, but what his discovery brought to the bad intentioned people( + but he still is a quite guilty bc he helped them). p.s: not everyone accepts the "he killed our enemy so he is a hero", or think this way.
@ththeo "without him, the chances of these weapons NOT existing(at least back then) was so high, " That's not how research works - not today, not back then.
Ah yes, Fritz Haber, "The Angel of Life and Death". No man better exemplifies the fact that all knowledge is a tool, one that can be used for immense good and staggering evil equally.
Watching Veritasium’s videos throughout a month or so. I completely fell in love with them. Every video tells people about another interesting and important thing in a field of science, which is great. But every time a video isn’t just about a scientific topic itself, it also conveys its own gist related to crucial events happening in the world. Every time after you watch another video of Veritasium’s you really need to seat back and think hard about what is happening around you and whether it’s acceptable in terms of adequacy and safety or not. This is what makes Derek’s videos that awesome ❤
They say knowledge is a curse. I learned so many things from this, and it left me in indescribable mixtures of joy and sadness. Thanks, Veritasium, unironically, for shaking up my perception on life in this world, once again. I write this, by the way, as your final segment of your video, touches on this exact theme. ...You're a cool guy; I like you. At least, it's nice to know I'm not alone.
it ends with some of the most beautiful words about science I have ever heard. That's why apprecieate and truly respect what Derek does. Thank you for all those years
Who knew a paragraph in our chemistry textbooks mentioning Haber’s process had left out so much rich history, euphoria and sadness. Thank you veritasium for telling us such amazing stories.
@Thanos Well as someone who cleared NEET exam last year, let me tell you - if you don't "love" the subject or don't "understand" anything of it, you can't clear any Indian Competitive exam. You seem like you're just blinded by your own hatred and cynicism that you're now starting to point finger at everything/everyone else to mask it. That's a really unhealthy mentality dude. 97 chapters of Physics, Zoology, Botany and Chemistry; 200 questions & 200 minutes - that isn't something that can be cleared with just simple "by heart" or "just solve MCQs" as you're stating. It takes a lot of understanding too Not to mention, everything mentioned in this video is already in our textbooks - The Nitrogen Cycle in the beginning of this video is studied thoroughly in our Grade XI Biology Chapter 12 - "Mineral Nutrition" & Grade XII Biology Chapter 14 - "Ecosystem"; the nitrogen bond making and breaking is studied in Grade XI Chemistry Chapter 4 - "Chemical Bonding" & Grade XII Chemistry Chapter 7 - "p block elements" ; the Nitrogen being one of the most important element is studied in Grade XII Chemistry Chapter 14 - "Biomolecules" and Grade XII Biology Chapter 6 - "Molecular basis of inheritance" so on and so forth
This is why I love history. I CONSTANTLY state that my beliefs about history and that I believe that censoring and/or even refusing to teach students about history like the Holocaust. As somebody whose fascination of history revolves 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗬 on war era history (most especially WWI & WWII), I completely understand that history is nowhere CLOSE to being pretty and can even make some of the emotionally strongest people cry at the depravity humanity is capable of, but when we censor and even refuse to acknowledge those awful events in history, we’ll only end up repeating it later on in the future.
Fritz had a half-sister named Frieda! I’m sure there’s some indirect representation or influence of him in Attack on Titan. As attack on Titan is a piece of literature that has heavy parallels to both World Wars; I think it ties in with how the Fritz's power of the titans is said to have both brought destruction and despair and bridges, roads, crops and wealth to humanity.
I am a huge fan of the channel but we can't just "regard him as irrelevant...because someone else would have figured out a way to process Nitrogen out of the air". Someone else would have figured out the Earth goes around the sun (Copernicus). Someone else could have found Laws of Motion (Newton) and someone else would have figured out how electricity and magnetism works (Maxwell) and so on and so on. These people give their whole lives up for science and it would be disrespectful of us to simply regard them as irrelevant.
As soon as I read the title of this video my mind immediately went to Sabaton's latest single called "Father", which tells the story of Fritz Haber...an amazing track about a very interesting yet conflicting historical figure.
I just started watching the episode and love the introduction; it feels terrific. This is peak Veritasium. All your content is beautiful. Thank you for keep this growing. 😊
It always amazes me how Veritasium can tell you about fascinating topics that you didn't even know existed. After every video I feel like I can understand the world at least a tiny bit more.
@AlChemist yup haber's process - N2 + 3H2 -----> 2NH3 with finely divided iron as catalyst, Molybdenum as a promoter and the rxn proceeding at 200atm with a temperature of 500 C.
Most schools mention the Haber Bosch Process they just do not go into this much detail. Which is funny because everybody knows about Einstein and he has the least impact on day to day living vs. Haber.
This story resonates so hard with the story of Oppenheimer these days. Whatever can be used for good can be used for evil. Oppenheimer started with developing a weapon, while Haber started with the fertilizer.
Just want to say THANK YOU for all thee great info you have in your videos absolutely love how you explain everything in detail!! Crazy Ive had several questions in a few videos and you actually answered them in the video it was great!! So please keep up the great work it is greatly appreciated and very fascinating have a great one thanks again for doing what you do!!!
a tragic and beautiful story. I love your videos and this one hit me like a train, particularly as a Jewish scientist myself. We must use knowledge for the good of all humanity
He actually may have helped end the war. By routing nitrogen to arms, that increased the shortage of food in Germany. This led to riots and eventually German soldiers mutinying. When an offense would break through allied lines, it immediately halted because the German when crazy looting all the food (and booze) they found.
Hello Derek, amazing video as always. Can you do a video on the history of Fermat's last theorem and the solution by Andrew Wiles? Your unique method of making videos and deep scientific knowledge would make it outstanding. Give it a thought. Thanks alot for all you do for science
I had already read this story avidly long ago, and I must say that I was very impressed. at first glance, I could only think about the fact that we cannot categorize people based on their actions alone; in Haber's time nationalist patriotism was very marked, and it was not possible to withdraw from its influence. Moreover, any kind of scientific invention or application can be used both for peaceful purposes and for monstrous crimes, such as atomic energy for bombs and power plants, such as Alfred Nobel's explosives intended as an aid in mining work who improved worker's safety but that became a disruptive war weapon (Nobel himself engaged in the production of war material, which earned him a lot of criticism that led him to institute the homonymous award that instead exalted the good that science and knowledge could create, a documentary for this character would be interesting ). Some report that Fritz Haber was not at all impressed by his wife's suicide, but some touching letters show the opposite; he was certainly not the cold and inhuman man as many have portrayed him.
The chemical inventions he created made him heroic in a way for how useful they were, the people that utilised his chemicals however turned him into a villain.
I learned about this guy during an ethics in science class I had to take in college. One man encapsulating our highest highs and lowest lows as a species.
How is he the lowest low? How is it that killing thousands by gas is considered a war crime whilst killing millions by a gunshot wound whilst they lay dying slowly in no mans land is considered completely acceptable? And don't start blaming him for gassing jews, that's like blaming Benjamin Franklin for his research that brought electricity so far today for executing people with the electric chair.
@taserrr well my friend using his research to conduct those actions still makes him the lowest of the low on terms of others because it was more of a choice to do it than be forced to
@King Manny Sure but he wanted to win the war, if the Germans had won he'd be considered a hero. And despite all this, the allies also used gas and other horrible tactics throughout world war 1.
@taserrr I think it's a fair argument. The proponents of chemical weapons saw them as deterrents for war by making it so bad that everyone would think twice. Not only that, but it's a deterrent that was actually on the table. Which is more effective? The deterrent that never gets used, or the one that everyone fears because they know it will be used? When chemical weapons became highly regulated and banned, the creators and supporters objected because they felt their ability as a deterrent would be heavily impacted and the bans would result in more war and more death. In other words, countries wanted to be able to conduct business as usual and the threat of chemical weapons impacted that. Today, even pepper spray is actually banned by the Geneva convention which I'm sure many will find odd.
So far, I really, really love those Veritasium science videos and how well made they are !!! Thanks very much to all the Veritasium team for all the good work 👍
I think the lesson that can be taken from this story regarding the current progress of AI is that no matter how optimistic you are about the future use of AI, there will always be malicious parties who want to exploit AI for wrongdoing. It's a double-edged sword, indeed.
I love ❤️ the chemistry side of your video, it really amazed me how he was able to come up with that brilliant idea that benefits the world today.Chemistry is my favourite in science.
Congrats Derek, you are about to see a spike in views from Sabaton’s newest single. You will experience something that only history BRvidrs have experienced before.
Wasn't the Nobel Peace Prize invented because of the creator wanting to make a peaceful Legacy for himself after his inventions were used for war and destruction?
Hey! Did you know God is three in one!? The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit! Bless him! Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead, and gives salvation to everyone who has faith in him! True faith in Jesus will have you bear good fruit and *drastically* change for the better! Have a blessed day, everyone!! ❤
Your worries (yes, anxiety), depression, suicidal thoughts, EVERYTHING will melt away and be NO MORE when you lean on God and put your trust in him! When I have physical pain, I literally pray and the Lord quells it, that I am healed!! Know that there is power in the name Jesus Christ! His name casts out demons and heals! People are bothered by his name. The world hates the truth and wants to continue living sinfully! God's children are set apart (holy) and righteous.
This should be taught in Schools at the end of the History and Chemistry Syllabus. A perfect documentary to encapsulate something that happened in our History.
I appreciate the seriousness of this video. Not making light of these issues, especially the enormous loss of life. Very respectable way to cover grim topics.
What happened to him was truly devastating, he was fired by the government he helped, and the government he helped massacred millions of people from the religion he believed.
I was always curious to know about this process. I read in my chemistry book but it wasn't in-depth. But today, i got to know about his history. That guy has made the lives possible at this crucial time, when population was touching the sky. But on the other hand, if i could say, he misused his research, it'd also be inappropriate. He was bound to his feeling of patriotism. Thanks you so much for bringing such content to us. ❤
My theory is she just wanted him home and wanted to see the other side of him that she saw before his fame. He, being a scientist, likely sacrificed most of his time to his scientific pursuits. After all " what Fritz has won, I have lost." This line is what leads me to this conclusion every mile he gained in the scientific community was a mile separating her from the man she loved.
When i studied chemistry, we were taught this story. The professor went into explicit detail of the horrors of chemistry. He did this to explain that our knowledge is what we do with it. And hopes we use it for good.
@D Sweet more like the professor did. It's mostly a valueless expression, people always think they're doing good so it's useless to warn your students to not use their knowledge for evil. Unless one of them aims to be a comic book mad scientist villain, they'd probably argue whatever they're doing is a good thing. It would be more useful to tell them to really think about the consequences (be it direct or indirect) and ethic of their work.
There is an amazing book called The Alchemy of Air that tells the story of him and struggles during the war and after her his death. I recommend it. Edit: The book also explains how he was able to extract gold from sea water in a secret lab on a cruise ship, but it was not profitable 'at the time'. Who knows how today's technology could be successful with getting gold out of seawater.b
At the end of his life, he was desperate but he also allowed for around 4 billion of us to live or exist. This is the type of legacy he left behind for us. Not a bad one but also not a good one. It is in what I believe to be called a gray area.
7:53 A lesser-known invention by Haber was the "Opti-Grab"...a spectacle accessory that Steve Martin tried to take credit for nearly 75 years later with a similar design.
This might be the best youtube videos ever exist. For me who knows absolutely nothing about it, this video is mind blowing. And the way they deliver the information is very easy to understand. Good job Veritasium 👍
16 ATP molecules (some of them broken even to AMP) to break a single N2 molecule reducting it into 2 NH3... That is an insane amount of energy for sure!! Enzymes and enzymatic complexes never stop facinating me.. Perfectly tuned, most of them specific for 1 reaction with precise compounds, sometimes kinda modular with the ability to switch the acceptor site to apply the reaction to another compound.. nanomechs written in our DNA able to catalyze reactions which would normally require a high temperature and low pH enviroment in macroscopic conditions. They make possible highly exotermic reactions inside our biological enviroment splitting them into multiple steps catalyzed by multiple enzymes. And even when they can do mistakes, there always is an error correction system (example: DNA Polymerase). Sorry guys, i went too far with this
I've done part of my PhD in the Fritz-Haber-Institut. It's weird to imagine that the experimental hall where I've spent so many nights doing a bit of science was once crowded with people focused on how to kill more efficiently....
Yeah, that's a very good question and one of the main issues of philosophy of science. When I was lecturing first year's I was introducing students to the concept of technological determinism and its implications. I was using two examples of technologies, one very simple the other a bit more complex (a hoe and the internet). I used these two technologies (very far apart from each other) to show students how any technology is just a tool and it's up to the humans handling it if it's used for good or bad purposes. A hoe can till the soil to grow food or can crack a skull open, the internet...well, we see that every day the goods and bads of it. So I was actually proving determinism wrong: you simply can't decide the uses and purposes of a technology, it's the users that will make sense of a technology that will decide if it's good or bad. Check also Fermi, Oppenheimer & co. Thanks for the excellent videos you keep making
Like you mentioned, if he hadn't connected the dots one of his peers would have figured it out within the decade, chemistry is the perfect example of standing upon the shoulders of giants. The man was a monster, involved in chemical weapons, and if I'm correct, Fritz was responsible for chlorine gas, which melts people. You give him too much credit for his predecessors accomplishments, although I also don't think you can give him credit for the gas-chambers.
Great. You generate knowledge to thousands of human beings. Im a Sri Lankan, who is suffering due to politicians that do not know the basic persistence of Nitrogen and its impact on human history. They banned Nitrogen fertilizer on the island. I heard that ahead of WW2 Hitler also did the same with mythological interpretation.
Very interesting video and I very much appreciate the question at the end about how do we keep increasing our knowlegde without bringing destruction to ourselves and that around us. Honestly, I don´t know. The obvious answer seems that we must advance our morals and culture as fast if not faster than our science, but that seems almost impossible by our very nature. It´s not that we can´t advance in those matters, but we can also go back or stagnate. When it comes to technology, if it works it works. When it comes to morals, there´s all kinds competing with one another, none fully rigth or fully wrong in every aspect. Maybe we endure and prosper despite our faults, maybe we transcent human limits via technology and somehow we fix even our deepest flaws, or perhaps it will be like in many dystopian tales and we become too powerful without the restrain and responsability needed, and so we fall. I can only hope and do my best in my little, almost insignificant, part of our existence.
He was a patriot to his country, the one country he wanted to come out victorious from the war, can't blame that I would do the same. He also made it easy to grow food. He's a great man. I'm pretty sure that the creator of the mop would feel sad when someone uses one to beat a person with it😂😂
Loves the conclusion question at the end... really smart stuff, how do you keep the process of creating value from facts... Here morality turns into something truly transcendent here
In our schools they teach us that "manners are more important than knowledge" In other words, " Ethics comes first before science" As you said, knowledge is a double edged weapon, it comes to you how to use it.
I thank you for sharing this interesting information about this man I never even heard of. On the other hand I can't help but gag listening at your epilogue of this man life. It's like listening to Mozart for 20 minutes and the last act some kid bashes all instruments 😂😂
Honestly let's give a big props to the editing and animation on these recent videos. Feels like I'm watching a TedEd video, with Derek's narration. It's only getting better!!!
Lakehuntist looking at your videos I doubt that very much. I cannot make a video of my life depended on it, but i don't go around claiming I can. And I don't make sad videos about trolling people.
Learning things about base elements and chemicals bore the everloving hell out of me, but this was interesting. As soon as you said Zyklon-B, my heart sank.
Well, Georg Hilderbandt, how did you seal the flask? I suppose the pressure in a sealed flask doesn’t change in adiabatic process and it’ll drop if submerged in cold water. The pressure could rise only if the flask was pressurised or pressed somehow. So was the flask evenly pressed by submerging into the water? What was it made of? There is a glass flask in the video and my chemist girlfriend doesn’t believe it was possible with the glass one, so do I.
It reminds me that the same could be said about Einstein and his famous E=mc2 equation. The difference is, Einstein was opposed to his work being turned into a weapon. It just goes to show, as stated in the video, anything can be used for good or bad, depending on the intention of the user.
As someone who has inhaled chlorine gas, I have mixed feelings here. It's incredibly painful. Even the relatively small amount I breathed in, sent me to the emergency room. DYING that way sounds like my worst nightmare. He really was human though. He did both tremendous good and caused tremendous pain. Honestly, if he were on the winning side of the war, I have little doubt that he would have been remembered by history as a great hero. But his country lost.
This. Manhattan Project worked on weapons just as cruel and much more devastating and effective. But in their case it managed to end the war, so now it's an achievement. If the Japanese won, it would be remembered as the most egregious war crime in history.
Between the concentrated chlorine tabs and the Hydrochloric acid, death is always available at your local pool supply store. Thankfully nobody makes that connection.
@steven damon that's actually what happened to me! I was in elementary school and my dad was adding chlorine tablets to the container. Rain must have gotten in because we both breathed in some. I got hit worse than him. I was lower than him. I couldn't breathe and was a crying mess. My lungs felt like they were burning and I was coughing/trying to throw something up. Nothing came out. I don't remember what happened at the emergency room, but I remember the pure agony and terror that I felt...
@Rose Red I worked with the stuff for a couple of years in the pool service business and had the same experience, just not as bad. My throat closed immediately and I was instantly choking and in pain, and this was without mixing it with hydrochloric acid (I believe it's called "mustard gas") that we also carried in the back of the truck. It made me drive a bit more carefully, eh? I am amazed at how loosely regulated this stuff is as a dual use product. As an agent of death, chemistry puts firearms to shame.
I had to do a report of the effects of overuse of nitrate fertilizer in Nebraska and how sick people are getting there from pollution of the groundwater. Turns out his best invention can still be bad.
