Life / Agriculture & Food

Synthetic pesticides

Paul Müller found DDT's insecticidal power in 1939; synthetic insecticides and herbicides cut crop losses but harmed ecosystems.

The Swiss chemist Paul Müller discovered in 1939 that DDT kills insects at tiny doses (Nobel Prize 1948); it protected crops and troops and sharply cut malaria and typhus after 1943. Herbicides such as 2,4-D (1940s) followed, and chemical crop protection became part of the high-yield package of the Green Revolution. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) exposed the damage to wildlife and led to DDT bans in many countries, including the US in 1972.