Food & agriculture · 1939

DDT insecticide

Paul Muller found DDT killed insects on contact, protecting crops and fighting malaria.

Discovered as an insecticide in 1939 in Switzerland, DDT helped eliminate malaria from southern Europe and the US and protected crops worldwide. Its ecological harm, documented in Silent Spring in 1962, led to agricultural bans from 1972.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Mosquito transmits malaria 1897

What it led to 1

Green Revolution 1961

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Cereal yield Latest: 4.21 t/ha (2024) Source: Our World in Data

Life expectancy at birth Latest: 73.2 years (2023) Source: Our World in Data