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| Nuclear Fusion |
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| Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant had discovered that heavy hydrogen nuclei could be reacted with each other, creating a nuclear fusion. He had no idea that this discovery would be used later on to create hydrogen bomb by Edward Teller. |
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| 2 |
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| Leaded Petrol and CFC |
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| Thomas Midgley was the brainchild behind the discoveries of CFC and leaded petrol. He stated that CFC Freon would be a safer refrigerant than ammonia. But, that was the very element which had caused extensive damage to the Ozone layer. Also, his idea of adding tetraethyl lead to petrol resulted in health issues across the world. |
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| 3 |
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| Rockets |
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| Wernher von Braun wanted to build rockets that could be used for astronomical purposes to overcome the earth’s gravitational pull and explore the space. But his invention was misused during the world wars to create rockets like the Nazi V2 in Germany and then the ICBM rockets in the US. As a result, many of us fail to remember that it was his invention, the Saturn V rockets, that helped human beings to reach the moon. |
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| 4 |
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| TNT |
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| Joseph Wilbrand, a chemist from Germany, had discovered a yellow dye in 1863 which he called trinitrotoluene or TNT. About 40 years later, in 1902, TNT was discovered to have huge explosive potential. Since then, TNT has been used widely in the World Wars and is used even today in the military. |
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| 5 |
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| Sarin Gas |
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| Dr. Gerhard Schrader of Germany discovered a number of insecticides in order to provide good yield of food crops. But, two of his accidental discoveries – sarin and tabun – are widely used as nerve agents today. |
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