Chemie jde do války – Dvořák Ondřej (2025)

Chemistry has a dark side. It has brought humanity groundbreaking discoveries such as artificial fertilizers, medicines and nanotechnology, but laboratories have also produced substances intended for one purpose only: to kill or at least harm someone. When chemical weapons are mentioned, most people think of mustard gas or the terrorist attacks in the Tokyo subway, but the history of chemicals in the service of the god of war is much older. The ancient Greeks and Romans used them on the battlefield, they served during medieval castle sieges, and they were known in Europe, Asia and America. Chemical weapons experienced their greatest period of “glory” in the trenches of the First World War, after which their use fortunately began to decline. If you are interested in how they work and affect people, Ondřej Dvořák, a tireless popularizer of all things related to chemistry, opens the door to the dangerous world of elements, molecules and compounds that can harm your health. Chemistry itself, however, is not the embodiment of evil; it is always people who misuse its discoveries. The book explores questions such as where the first gas attack of the First World War took place, what happened in the “attack of the dead men,” what is put into the smelliest chemical warfare agent, whether anyone knows the formula of Novichok, and whether curare from the first tree is better than curare from the second tree.