The Alchemy of Air
by Thomas Hager · first published 2008
92% recommend8% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Narrative history of the Haber-Bosch process, covering how nitrogen fertilizer and explosives grew out of the same chemistry; praised as enlightening, well-told science history for readers who enjoy nonfiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A sweeping history of tragic genius, cutting-edge science, and the discovery that changed billions of lives--including your own.At the dawn of the twentieth century, humanity was facing global disaster. Mass starvation, long predicted for the fast-growing population, was about to become a reality. A call went out to the world's scientists to find a solution. This is the story of the two enormously gifted, fatally flawed men who found it: the brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and the reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized f
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For an interesting take on this, I'd recommend reading The Alchemy of Air. It's not specifically about either of the world wars. It's about the work that led to the discovery of the Haber-Bosch process that makes it possible to produce ammonia by extracting nitrogen from the…
on “The Chemists’ War” ↗…still a savings of over 300 million megawatt hours annually with the added benefit of cheaper food worldwide since nitrogen is one of the largest costs in agriculture. I highly recommend the book, "The Alchemy of Air" about the creation of the Haber-Bosch process. http://www.amazon.com/The-Alchemy-Air-Scientific-Discovery/d... The subtitle doesn't do the book justice, but fixing nitrogen might be the most important…
on “Researchers have developed a method to produce ammonia with air and water” ↗If I may, a wonderful book called “The Alchemy of Air” by Thomas Hager is a very enlightening book on this very same issue during the late 1800s. EDIT: I was mobile earlier but wanted to throw a bit of a teaser in here. This book (along with Hager's "The…
on “Only 60 Years of Farming Left If Soil Degradation Continues” ↗…energy, and output rate were all considerations and the result was much more than just throwing some magnetite powder in a reaction chamber. There's a great book on the development of the process The Alchemy of Air https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Air-Jewish-Scientific-Discove...
on “Ask HN: What’s the most important modern simple invention?” ↗…raids." The invention of ammonia synthesis from atmospheric N2 via the Haber-Bosch process largely put an end to the guano industy and the slave labor that supported it. There's an excellent book, "The Alchemy of Air" by Thomas Hager that covers this history well: https://blog.rootsofprogress.org/turning-air-into-bread
on “Old Easter Island genomes show no sign of a population collapse” ↗"The Alchemy of Air" by Thomas Hager. This covers the discovery of fertilizer, its strategic implications (it was the oil of its day), the creation in Germany of the Haber-Bosch process for producing fertilizer and gunpowder…
on “Ask HN: Best non-fiction book you read in 2024?” ↗Learned about that book from HN, so thanks HN. Of late, I've been reading The Alchemy of Air which revolves around Haber-Bosch process and it's been a delight so far. Highly recommend if you love a mix of non-fiction, history & science.
on “An engineering history of the Manhattan Project” ↗If you haven't read it, I'd highly recommend the book, "The Alchemy of Air" about the invention of Haber-Bosch.. It was unbelievable what they went through to fix nitrogen, they literally invented new fields of study in materials science and chemistry. The perils of a Jewish…
on “China to begin two-child policy” ↗…event that resulted in modern day insider trading laws, the creation of the income tax, etc). You'll enjoy this if you like business books. 5. Creativity Inc by the cofounder of Pixar. Good story. 6. Alchemy of Air Story of the investors of the Haber-Bauche process to convert nitrogen in the air to ammonia (the key component of artificial fertilizer, gas and gunpowder). Arguably the greatest discovery of the 20th…
on “Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing” ↗There is an incredible book about this topic called "The Alchemy of Air"@, which I highly recommend. It's one of the best non-fiction science books I've ever read. Also available on Audible. Fritz Haber's life story is intertwined with Einstein's and the book pairs extremely…
on “Fritz Haber: A Monster Who Fed the World” ↗If you are interested in the history of nitrogen fertilizer production, The Alchemy of Air [0] is excellent. The biggest revelation being that the same process that now fuels all modern agriculture was driven by demand for explosives in post WW1 Germany. [0] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/73464/the-alchemy-o...
on “Nitrogen fertilizer shortage threatens to cut global crop yields – CF Industries” ↗…consumption, 3% of global carbon emissions,[23] and 3% to 5% of natural gas consumption Big if we can improve this. For more on the Haber process and its impact on the world, I highly recommend this book: "The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler" by Thomas Hager.
on “Electroreduction of nitrogen with almost 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency” ↗There is a good book called the Alchemy of Air that goes into this quite a bit.
on “Discovery of nitrogen-fixing corn variety could reduce need for added fertilizer” ↗The book “The Alchemy of Air” is a fascinating read.
on “Solein – Protein out of thin air” ↗Book: The Alchemy of Air
on “Farm in Kenya to produce fertilizer without using fossil fuels” ↗