Tragic End of A Nobel Prize Winner

The use of chemicals as a destructive weapon in wars is not a recent development. The first major attempt, however, for developing chemical weapons of mass destruction started way back during the First World War when the rival groups invited scientists for applying their skill in this direction.

Fritz Haber, a scientist of great repute at that time, finds mention in academic syllabi of high-school chemistry as the one who developed the process of manufacture of ammonia gas from nitrogen and hydrogen. But he extended his research for the development of the process of manufacture of nitric acid from ammonia. This led to the further progress in the manufacture of nitrogen-base explosives.

Haber was a German scientist. As a patriotic German, he gave priority to his duty towards his country over the future destruction of mankind as the consequence of his inventions. He was the leading scientist, on the side of Germany during the First World War, who were engaged in the development of destructive chemicals which could bring about massive killing of  the enemy. Haber's wife, herself a chemist, opposed the very idea of mass killing and requested him to give up his work. Haber declined arguing that it was his patriotic duty. His wife committed suicide after she had failed to persuade him.

Haber luckily escaped the trial as a war criminal in 1919 but being a Jew by birth he had to pay the penalty. He was treated cruelly despite his services. The Nobel Prize Winner scientist for whom patriotism was at the top was hounded out of his country and he left for Cambridge with broken heart. Remaining years of his life were more or less painful until he died, in exile, in Basle( Palestine), after sufferring from sudden illness- a tragic end to a great life!