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This is the story of two men who invented a way to turn air into bread, built factories the size of small cities, made enormous fortunes, helped engineer the deaths of millions of people, and saved the lives of billions more. Their work stands, I believe, as the most important discovery ever made. Put simply, the discovery described in this book is keeping alive nearly half the people on earth. Most people do not know the names of either the men or their invention. But we should thank them every time we take a bite of food. Their work lives today in the form of giant factories, usually located in remote areas, that drink rivers of water, inhale oceans of air, and burn about 1 percent of all the earth’s energy. If all the machines these men invented were shut down today, more than two billion people would starve to death. (from the Introduction to "The Alchemy of Air") |
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