Thomas Midgley Jr.

Highlights of his life and career:

• Played a major role in developing leaded gasoline
• Played a major role in developing some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
• Died by his own invention he made to help him in and out of bed due to contracting polio

Midgley's legacy is tied in with the negative environmental impact of leaded gasoline and freon. Environmental historian J. R. McNeill opined that Midgley "had more adverse impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history", and Bill Bryson remarked that Midgley possessed "an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny". Fred Pearce, writing for New Scientist, described Midgley as a "one-man environmental disaster".