Did you know that the same person, a Mr. Thomas Midgley, invented both leaded gasoline and CFCs?

Yes, the Earth has a lot for which to thank Mr. Midgley.

(And he went to my alma mater, Cornell, too. Crazy MechEs.)

In all fairness, CFCs were used to replace compounds that were even more toxic or explosive, and the long-term atmospheric effects weren’t known at the time. (Leaded gasoline is a bit of another story.) But I feel like there’s a moral in there somewhere. We can never see all the results of something that we do; but I’ll leave my conclusions from that for another day.

I learned today’s random fact while reading A Short History of Nearly Everything, which I highly recommend.