This article about ‘green explosives‘ caught my eye. The author takes a sideways look at the issue noting that:

If you’re worried about the environment but still need to blow people up, a new class of nitrogen-based bomb materials is for you. Popular explosives like TNT and HMX react to form nitrogen oxides when detonated, the major culprits behind smog and acid rain. This is a big no-no if you’re the type of warmonger who drives a hybrid tank, obviously, so weapons experts at the University of Munich devised an alternatives that are cleaner, more stable, and even more powerful than those other explosives.

Apparently an alternative use would be as rocket fuel.  While struggling to find any meaningful justification for the invention of ever more powerful exploseives, it makes me think about another set of vague connections. Alfred Nobel was both an inventor of dynamite who ended up giving his fortune away in a supreme act of philanthropy. There is a certain paradox in those events. On the one hand we have the invention of something meant for industry that has become much more closely associated with destruction. On the other, a enduring gift that retains its prestige to this day.

Could we by any chance make the same connections between Bill Gates and his mastery in beating out competition, in the process having his company dubbed ‘evil’ yet bequething his wealth to a philanthropic foundation that will no doubt benefit for years to come?