The Pesticide That Nearly Silenced Spring Forever

During World War II, DDT was called the atomic bomb of the insect world and was sprayed everywhere to kill mosquitoes and lice. It was so effective that scientists won a Nobel Prize for discovering it. But the celebration was short-lived. By the 1960s, biologist Rachel Carson discovered that DDT was causing birds to lay eggs with shells so thin they cracked before hatching. Eagles, ospreys, and pelicans were heading toward extinction. The chemical accumulated in fatty tissues, traveled up the food chain, and could still be found in human breast milk decades after it was banned in 1972.