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. He simply was, as one contemporary put it, 'the greatest man since the Deluge'. Napoleon was jealous of him Simon Bol var'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. Order a The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science: Costa & Royal Society Prize Winner today from WHSmith. 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. 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. The Invention of Nature does the same for Alexander von HumboldtĪlexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist: more things are named after him than anyone else. Before Longitude no one remembered John Harrison.
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