On this day, 172 years ago, September 2, 1853 (July 29, 1853, the Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Ostwald was born. On September 2, 1853, Ostwald was born in Riga, Latvia, Russia. He has been studious since childhood and has a special interest and hobby in chemistry. He often buys various chemicals from pharmacies and makes various toys. Sometimes he makes fireworks that can spray three-colored flames, and sometimes he makes small and exquisite firecrackers. He graduated from Dorpat University in 1875 and received a doctorate in philosophy in 1878. In 1882, he became a professor at the Riga Institute of Technology. Since then, he began his career in chemical kinetics. Ostwald's contributions are manifold. 1887-1906 In 1999, he served as a professor at the University of Leipzig. He conducted in-depth research on the theory of weak electrolytes by Swedish chemist Alenius and developed them. He also studied the catalytic process from many aspects and successfully completed the research work of naming ammonia oxidation to extract ammonia oxide, creating conditions for the synthesis of ammonia. This achievement made him highly praised by the world scientific community and became a world-famous physical chemist. For his important contributions to physical chemistry, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909. However, Ostwald also made two serious mistakes in his life of scientific research. First, he founded "energy-based theory" and opposed materialism. He believed that "energy" was the source of all things. He said,"Why can the clock move? This is because they wind the clock once a week. But when the clockwork comes loose, the clock will not run, and the clockwork will still be in the clock. It can be seen that it is not the clockwork, but another thing hidden in the clockwork that keeps the clock running. This is energy. His "energy-only" view was fiercely criticized by many famous chemists, making it impossible for him to continue teaching at the university. In 1906, he resigned as a professor at the University of Leipzig and lived in seclusion in a suburban villa. Second, during the First World War, Germany was repeatedly defeated due to the gradual unevenness of arms production in Germany. The German royal family repeatedly asked Ostwald for advice, but he remained indifferent and refused a special salary. Later, German public opinion encouraged him: "Born as a Germanic, how can you watch the German nation be destroyed? "He had no choice but to propose using readily available ammonia to make large quantities of nitric acid in order to maintain huge ammunition production, causing the German army to linger on for more than a year at the end of the war, making the big mistake of his life. After the First World War, Ooswald became even more indifferent to the world and devoted himself to cultivating his nature in the mountain village until his death in 1932.