In the early twentieth century, an elite group of modern-minded scientists in Germany, led by the eminent organic chemist Emil Fischer, set out to create new centers and open new sources of funding for chemical research. Their efforts led to the establishment in 1911 of the chemical institues of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of the Sciences, whose original staff included several future Nobel laureates. Although these institutes were designed to promote "free research" that would uphold German Leadership in international science, they also came to promote the integration of science in the German war effort after 1914. According to Jeffrey Johnson, the development of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes exemplifies the origins and dilemmas of one of the most significant innovations in modern science: the creation of institutions for basic research, both theoretical and practical. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was a quasi-official institution under the "protection" of Kaiser Wilhelm II, but it received most of its funding from German industry rather than the Imperial Treasury. After 1914, however, the Kaiser's chemists and their institutes provided key support to the German war effort. Within a few months of the outbreak of World War I, the institutes had been integrated into war mobilization activities. They conducted research both in weapons, such as poison gas, and in strategic resources, especially synthetics to replace naturally produced goods cut off by Britain's blockade of German ports. By examining the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the framework of both scientific and social change, Johnson is able to answer questions that seem puzzling if not viewed from this dual perspective, such as why German chemists pushed for institutional change at this particular time. Johnson argues that the new institutes arose from a characteristically modern tension between internationally set scientific goals and the competing national priorities of a country headed for war. Johnson's sources include the papers of Emil Fischer; the archives of several major German corporations, including Bayer, Hoechst, and Krupp; government records; and the archives of the Max Planck Society, which grew out of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society after World War II. Originally published in 1990. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Inspired by Dougal Stermer's book 'Vanishing Flora', Roman Kaiser worked for more than ten years on collecting the scent of 267 endangered plant species worldwide. In the present volume, he invites us to a journey along the hotspots of biodiversity, all of them bearing endangered species, and discusses their scents. This compilation renders the book an important contribution to the UN International Year of Biodiversity.

A to Z of Chemists, Updated Edition tells the stories of nearly 100 chemists—both well-known scientific greats of history and contemporary scientists whose work is just verging on greatness. Readers will find fascinating entries on people such as Gertrude Belle Elion, who developed drugs to cure diseases as diverse as leukemia, gout, herpes, malaria, and arthritis. From famous mainstream chemists to minority scientists often excluded from similar titles, A to Z of Chemists, Updated Edition spans all cultures, ethnicities, and eras. Designed for high school through early college students, this title in the Notable Scientists series is also an ideal resource for all readers interested in chemistry. Articulated in everyday language, even the most complex concepts are accessible. While the majority of the scientists in this work are, first and foremost, chemists, there is a handful of physicists, biologists, and other scientists who made significant contributions to chemistry. People covered include: Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811–1899) Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) George Washington Carver (1864–1943) St. Elmo Brady (1884–1966) Karl Ziegler (1898–1973) Percy Lavon Julian (1899–1975) Linus Carl Pauling (1901–1994) Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910–1994) Robert Burns Woodward (1917–1979) Sir George Porter (1920–2002) Sir Aaron Klug (1926–2018) Jean-Pierre Sauvage (1944–present) Aziz Sancar (1946–present) Ahmed Zewail (1946–2016) Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (1952–present)

The Reader's Guide to the History of Science looks at the literature of science in some 550 entries on individuals (Einstein), institutions and disciplines (Mathematics), general themes (Romantic Science) and central concepts (Paradigm and Fact). The history of science is construed widely to include the history of medicine and technology as is reflected in the range of disciplines from which the international team of 200 contributors are drawn.

Within months of the start of the First World War, Germany began to run out of the raw materials it needed to make explosives. As Germany faced imminent defeat, chemists such as Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch came to the rescue with Nobel Prize winning discoveries that overcame the shortages and enabled the country to continue in the war. Similarly, Britain could not have sustained its war effort for four years had it not been for chemists like Chaim Weizmann who was later to become the first president of the State of Israel. Michael Freemantle tells the stories of these and many other chemists and explains how their work underpinned and shaped what became known as The Chemists’ War. He reveals: • how chemistry contributed to the care of the sick and wounded and to the health and safety of troops; • how coal not only powered the war but was also an important source of the chemicals needed for the manufacture of explosives, dyes, medicines and antiseptics; • how Britain’s production of propellants relied on the slaughter of tens of thousands of whales; • how a precious metal played a critical role in the war; • how poisonous chemicals were used as weapons of mass destruction for the first time in the history of warfare and how chemists developed gas masks for protection against these weapons; • how the British naval blockade of Germany imperilled agricultural production in the United States. The book will appeal to the general reader as well as the many scientists and historians interested in the Great War.

This biography of Fritz Haber, now abridged by the author and translated into English, illuminates the life of one of the most gifted yet controversial figures of the twentieth century. Haber, a brilliant physical chemist, carried out pioneering research in electrochemistry and thermodynamics and won the Nobel Prize for his synthesis of ammonia, a process essential for synthetic fertilizer — and for the explosives Germany needed in World War I. An ardent patriot, Haber also developed chemical weapons. Believing them to be no worse than other types of warfare, he directed the first true gas attack in military history from the front lines in Ypres, Belgium, in 1915. His nationalism also spurred his failed attempt to extract gold from seawater, in hopes of paying off Germany’s huge war reparations. Yet Haber, a Jew by birth, was exiled from his homeland in 1933 by the Nazis, and died the following year never knowing the full dire effects of his work, as Zyklon B, a gas studied in his institute around 1920, was used to murder prisoners in concentration camps, including members of Haber’s own family. With the help of previously unpublished documents and sources, Dietrich Stoltzenberg explores Haber’s personal life, the breakdown of his two marriages, his efforts to develop industrial and political support for scientific study in Germany, his directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm (now Max Planck) Institute, his ethical struggles in times of war, and more. “A much needed and fine new biography of Haber” — Oren Harman, The New Republic “This exhaustive biography, first published in Germany in 1996, captures Haber’s complexity well. Based on diligent research, it offers significant detail on Haber’s professional life for both specialists and generalists... Stoltzenberg’s work is perhaps as rich a biography as can be written on Haber’s achievements... This is an excellent biography... [based on] extensive primary research... The result is a work that brings to light important facets not just of the life of Fritz Haber but of several decades of evolution of the German scientific milieu.” — Guillaume P. De Syon, H-Net Reviews of the German edition, winner of the Author’s Prize of the German Chemical Society: “[An] excellent biography” — Max Perutz, The New York Review of Books “Stoltzenberg has written a fine biography of this deeply flawed individual... [This] sympathetic and comprehensive account... should appeal to general readers as well as to historians and all those interested in the social responsibility of science.” — David Cahan, Nature “[S]ucceeds admirably in enlivening the many facets of this remarkable man and his extraordinary career as a creative academic, a leading member of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, a shrewd businessman, and an influential advisor to various governments in Berlin. But Stoltzenberg is equally adept at presenting Haber the private man, who had to fight prejudice, endure two broken marriages, and, finally, emigration when the Nazis came to power in 1933... Stoltzenberg’s superb biography, which leaves little to be desired, is the remarkable achievement of a professional chemist turned historian.” — Peter Alter, Ambix “The book demonstrates Haber’s versatility as well as his enormous but not inexhaustible vitality... [T]he most detailed, best documented portrait we have of a remarkable and still controversial scientist.” — Jeffrey A. Johnson, Isis “Haber has finally found his ideal biographer in Dietrich Stoltzenberg, who possesses impeccable credentials for the task... [A] product of exemplary scholarship.” — George Kauffman, Annals of Science

No one better represents the plight and the conduct of German intellectuals under Hitler than Werner Heisenberg, whose task it was to build an atomic bomb for Nazi Germany. The controversy surrounding Heisenberg still rages, because of the nature of his work and the regime for which it was undertaken. What precisely did Heisenberg know about the physics of the atomic bomb? How deep was his loyalty to the German government during the Third Reich? Assuming that he had been able to build a bomb, would he have been willing? These questions, the moral and the scientific, are answered by Paul Lawrence Rose with greater accuracy and breadth of documentation than any other historian has yet achieved. Digging deep into the archival record among formerly secret technical reports, Rose establishes that Heisenberg never overcame certain misconceptions about nuclear fission, and as a result the German leaders never pushed for atomic weapons. In fact, Heisenberg never had to face the moral problem of whether he should design a bomb for the Nazi regime. Only when he and his colleagues were interned in England and heard about Hiroshima did Heisenberg realize that his calculations were wrong. He began at once to construct an image of himself as a "pure" scientist who could have built a bomb but chose to work on reactor design instead. This was fiction, as Rose demonstrates: in reality, Heisenberg blindly supported and justified the cause of German victory. The question of why he did, and why he misrepresented himself afterwards, is answered through Rose's subtle analysis of German mentality and the scientists' problems of delusion and self-delusion. This fascinating study is a profound effort to understand one of the twentieth century's great enigmas.