Podcasts · The Rest Is Science

"A Grim Enemy For Reasons We Do Not Yet Comprehend"

11 May 2026 · 44 min · S1 E50

* This episode contains descriptions of warfare and use of chemical weapons *

How do you feed a world that’s running out of food?

In this episode of The Rest Is Science, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens uncover one of the strangest and most unsettling stories in modern science: the tale of the man who learned how to pull fertiliser out of thin air.

This discovery transformed agriculture. It made modern civilisation possible. But it also powered explosives, prolonged the First World War, and helped to birth some of the most deadly chemical weapons in history.

From battles for bird poop and to the ethics of scientific progress, this is the story of the molecule that changed humanity forever.

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