The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History on HackerTube: recommended by 6 Hacker News commenters across 6 separate months, 2022–2026.
explainer · evergreen
Veritasium tells the story of Thomas Midgley Jr., who introduced leaded gasoline and CFCs, and covers the science behind lead exposure and ozone damage. It also touches on isotope geochemistry used to uncover the history.
HN commenters recommend it whenever leaded fuel, toxic chemicals or corporate profit motives come up, praising its storytelling and accessible science.
“here's an excellent one by Veritasium on how it happened.”
12 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
If you want a fascinating story telling video with a lot of sciency stuff for the relative layman, here's an excellent one by Veritasium on how it happened. "The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History" ▶ this video
in “EPA moves towards banning leaded aviation gas” · View on HN
Veritasium did a great video on Midgley: ▶ this video And therein they give the reason why ethanol was passed over: a lot of it is required to be effective (~10% of the fuel mixture), seriously dampening the profit margin of fuel sales! It works, but tetraethyl lead is so much cheaper
in “Why did we use leaded petrol for so long? (2017)” · View on HN
▶ this video This youtube channel does a good job of explaining his inventions and just how bad for society they were.
in “U.S. workers say banned weed killer in 50 countries is giving them Parkinson's” · View on HN
Have you seen this Veritasium video about the man who came up with adding tetraethyllead to gasonline and it's negative impact on humanity? ▶ this video Given how dangerous lead is in even the tiniest quantities it is really surprising that there has not been more pressure to change that.
in “FAA approves unleaded fuel for piston fleet” · View on HN
(2021) Veritasium covers the story behind lead in gasoline in ▶ this video , it's a really interesting albeit sad video. If I recall correctly, he mentions this study in the video.
in “The impact of childhood lead exposure on adult personality (2021)” · View on HN
I don't like how "toxic forever chemicals in the bloodstream" is a normal thing Veritasium has a great YouTube video about this: "The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History"[0] [0] - ▶ this video
in “Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study” · View on HN
The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History ▶ this video > This, my dear friend, is all I can at present recollect on the Subject. You will see by it, that the Opinion of this mischievous Effect from Lead, is at least above Sixty Years old; and you will observe with Concern how long a useful Truth may be known, and exist, before it is generally receiv'd and practis'd on. > Benjamin Franklin, 1786
in “Leaded Gas Was a Known Poison the Day It Was Invented (2016)” · View on HN
I mean, apparently the inventor of lead additive to gasoline used to pour the chemical over his hands to demonstrate how safe it was -- even though he knew it was actually quite toxic. So there are people who will knowingly give themselves small doses of poison to keep the money flowing. [1] ▶ this video
in “A worker fell into a nuclear reactor pool” · View on HN
Oh, the link between GM and leaded gasoline makes more sense in that context. TEL had been identified chemically in the mid-19th century, but General Motors had discovered its effectiveness as an antiknock agent in 1921, after spending several years attempting to find an additive that was both highly effective and inexpensive. [link] Video treatment: ▶ this video
in “Auto manufacturer family tree: Who owns what?” · View on HN
It is illuminating that the paper doesn’t mention lead while discussing IQ decline in the recent decades. ▶ this video
in “IQ scores are falling and have been for decades (2018)” · View on HN
The people vested in using lead in fuel said so out of profit motive, but it seems lead was widely known to be harmful for hundreads of years [0] before it was using it fuel. [0] ▶ this video
in “Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study” · View on HN
Good because as we just seen in the latest Vartasium video [1], even chemicals or elements we know are toxic for hundreds of years get pushed into the public and cause huge harm. [1] ▶ this video
in “EU considers banning use of up to 12,000 toxic chemicals” · View on HN