The Alchemy of Air:
A Jewish Genius, a Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery that Fed the World But Fueled the Rise of Hitler
by Thomas Hager
Not as good as Demon Under the Microscope but that doesn't mean it's not good. I'd been primed with overly high expectations--no one to blame for that but me.
Simply put, how do you get nitrogen out of the air where in the form of N2 it's one of the most stable and unreactive substances on the planet, and turn it into a salt that can become fertilizer. And of course bombs, as we survivors of the Oklahoma City disaster know only too well.
Bacteria seem to do it without effort, but mankind can't. Couldn't. Until Haber the scientist and Bosch the industrial engineer got their heads together, created a lot of pressure and heat, and discovered a catalyst to sweep the reaction along, and...BOOM! Not literally "boom," although there were plenty of those, but "boom," ammonia.
And that's only part of the story.
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