Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, for mining, by doing what the meme says (I don't know what "fossilized algae" refers to, but it makes the nitro not go boom, when it really wants to boom).
After seeing what it was eventually used for (bombs. Lots and lots of bombs) he regretted ever making it.
He set up the Nobel Peace Prize as a result, to try and even the scales a bit, so to speak
I don’t know what “fossilized algae” refers to
Looked it up:
Nobel found that when nitroglycerin was incorporated in an absorbent inert substance like kieselguhr (diatomaceous earth) it became safer and more convenient to handle, and this mixture he patented in 1867 as "dynamite".
Diatomaceous earth consists of the fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled microalgae.
This triggered a lost memory of watching bootleg MacGyver with some friends while getting blackout drunk celebrating Estonian reindependence after the soviet occupation collapsed. It was in German (None of us spoke German) and he was also doing something with some nitroglycerin on a truck.
He was known as the "Merchant of Death" because even after he accidentally revolutionized warfare he kept profiting off of it for the rest of his life.