The derivation of elemental fluorine from hydrofluoric acid is exceptionally dangerous, killing or blinding several scientists who attempted early experiments on this halogen. These men came to be referred to as "fluorine martyrs". For Moissan, it earned him the 1906 Nobel Prize in chemistry (Moissan himself lived to be 54, and it isn't clear whether his fluorine work shortened his life). The first large-scale production of fluorine was needed for the atomic bomb Manhattan project in World War… (More on Fluorine)