12 Comments

Happy Veterans day

Expand full comment

The silliest invention ever is the time change. You never really gain or lose and hour, you just call it something different. Buy your body knows the real time and as you age, boy, does it know.

Expand full comment

Industrial scale production of ammonia also led to industrial scale refrigeration. This implies frozen and refrigerated food storage, refrigerated transport vehicles and building air conditioning.

Expand full comment

Thank you to all veterans who served our country.

Expand full comment

Happy Veterans Day to those who served, and thank you.

My dad is a former Marine who, to this day at 82 years young, is still active in the Marine Corp League. Once a Marine, always a Marine.

Expand full comment
Nov 11, 2022·edited Nov 11, 2022

Another sad note about Haber (he and his wife were both brilliant chemists) is that his wife was horrified by his contribution to the German war effort and gas production. So horrified that she took her own life with his service revolver in protest. They were both amazing individuals. With the benefit or arrogance of our perspective of history, he may seem a monster (helping to develop the very poison gas that would be used against his own people in a subsequent war) -- but his contributions to chemistry (and what she likely contributed, in the shadows when women were little more than window dressing) -- amazing scientists.

Expand full comment

I'm delighted to read every invention was an "I didn't know that" moment for me. Thanks again!

Expand full comment

Regarding the disclosure of portable device passwords......the only people who take issue with allowing access are the ones who have something to hide.

Some have more nefarious things to hide than others.

Expand full comment

The U.S. is horrible in funding peacetime innovation beyond defense items. We should be funding startups directly...not leaving it to venture capitalists alone.

Expand full comment

Plato is credited with the slogan in other words, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” When push comes to shove, people think outside the box. Complacency doesn’t figure when it comes to invention, but adrenalin does!

Expand full comment

There is no peacetime. Only preparations for the next war. And out of those preparations come innovations seen first on the battlefield then to the general public. If you waited until war broke out, you're too late. Example; Gulf War I and the stealth fighter. Developed under cover in the 80's and used to good effect out of Kuwait.

Expand full comment