Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist - more
things are named after him than anyone else. There are towns, rivers,
mountain ranges, the ocean current that runs along the South American
coast, there's a penguin, a giant squid - even the Mare Humboldtianum on
the moon. His colourful adventures read like something out of a Boy's
Own story: Humboldt explored deep into the rainforest, climbed the
world's highest volcanoes and inspired princes and presidents,
scientists and poets alike.
Napoleon was jealous of him; Simon
Bolivar's revolution was fuelled by his ideas; Darwin set sail on the
Beagle because of Humboldt; and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo owned all his
many books. He simply was, as one contemporary put it, 'the greatest
man since the Deluge'. Taking us on a fantastic voyage in his
footsteps - racing across anthrax-infected Russia or mapping tropical
rivers alive with crocodiles - Andrea Wulf shows why his life and ideas
remain so important today.
Humboldt predicted human-induced
climate change as early as 1800, and The Invention of Nature traces his
ideas as they go on to revolutionize and shape science, conservation,
nature writing, politics, art and the theory of evolution. He wanted to
know and understand everything and his way of thinking was so far ahead
of his time that it's only coming into its own now. Alexander von
Humboldt really did invent the way we see nature.
The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science - Andrea Wulf
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