7 The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time 7

Paul Müller. Encyclopædia

Britannica, Inc.

Fuller’s book Nine Chains to the Moon (1938) is an out-

line of his general technological strategy for maximizing

the social applications of energy resources. He further

developed this and other themes in such works as No More

Secondhand God (1962), Utopia or Oblivion (1969), Operating

Manual for Spaceship Earth (1969), Earth, Inc. (1973), and

Critical Path (1981).

Paul Müller

(b. Jan. 12, 1899, Olten, Switz.—d. Oct. 12, 1965, Basel)

P

aul Hermann Müller was a Swiss chemist who

received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

in 1948 for discovering

the potent toxic effects

on insects of DDT. With

its chemical derivatives,

DDT became the most

widely used insecticide

for more than 20 years

and was a major factor in

increased world food

production and the sup-

pression of insect-borne

diseases.

A research chemist at

the J.R. Geigy Company,

Basel (1925– 65), Müller

began his career with

investigations of dyes

and tanning agents. In

1935 he began his search

for an “ideal” insecticide,

one that would show