Alexander von Humboldt - 10 reasons why you should learn about the greatest forgotten scientist and traveller

He is considered to be the last man who grasped the whole state of natural knowledge of his time. His 100th birthday was celebrated in many cities on five continents - people gathered in thousands to remember him from Melbourne, through Berlin and Paris, to Buenos Aires and the city of Mexico. The largest number of objects in the universe are called his name. Nevertheless, in the minds of people Alexander von Humboldt is not as well-known as Darwin, Einstein or Newton. And he should be!

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Alexander von Humboldt was born in 1769 in an aristocratic Prussian family. The inherited money allowed him to undertake long journeys where he undertook natural studies in the fields of geography, geology, botany, zoology and astronomy.

Here are 10 reasons why you should get to know him:

1. He has revolutionised how we perceive nature

Thanks to him, we understand nature as a sequence of countless interdependencies of elements connected with each other. We see it as a single, huge and global system, where seemingly unrelated phenomena have an impact on each other. He created a new paradigm, radical and unprecedented in his time. He was the first to recognise and prove that nature is a global force. Contrary to the naturalists of that time who analysed nature specimens in isolation, he suggested that even the smallest organisms cannot be treated separately from the environment in which they are found. His vision of nature today is so rooted in the modern world that it seems obvious and hardly anyone remembers who is behind it. He also laid the first foundations for studying landscape, climate science, oceanography and biogeography.

2. Creator of isotherms

He created isotherms - lines connecting points of the same temperature, which are still used today on weather maps - before that, hundreds of tables used to present temperatures. He also studied for the first time the rate of decrease in average temperature as sea level rises, thanks to hundreds of measurements at various altitudes in different parts of the world.

3. He discovered the magnetic equator

He discovered the magnetic equator (acline) - a line on a magnetic map linking the zero magnetic inclination points, which did not, as it turned out, fully coincide with the geographical equator. In addition, together with Carl Friedrich Gauss, he has created an international organisation for research into magnetic phenomena.

4. He created one of the first infographics in the world

After his return from South America, he presented Naturgemälde, a kind of infographics, which depicts a cross-section of the Chimborazo volcano, divided into climatic and vegetative zones along with a great amount of information. In one picture he showed nature as a global force by which the same climatic zones with similar vegetation can be found all over the world, depending on geographical latitude and the altitude above sea level.

5. Pioneer of the ecological movement

Travelling around the world he observed how thoughtless environmental exploitation changes and, as a result, significantly impoverishes nature - he noticed that drying marshes and cutting down forests has a very negative impact on the environment. He's the creator of the term "a natural monument".

6. Opponent of colonialism and slavery

He was a passionate abolitionist. Despite his friendship with Thomas Jefferson, he directly criticised the United States for not carrying on slavery. Thanks to him a law abolishing the status of a slave to anyone who puts his foot in Prussia was passed. He was a dear friend of Simón Bolívar, the most important figure fighting for the liberation of the South American colony from the Spanish crown.

7. Author of "Kosmos"

Within 13 years he has written 4 volumes of "Kosmos" which tried to present the whole material world and the principles that govern it in one single work. To help describe the universe, he asked for help dozens of scientists from all over the world, thanks to which he possessed detailed knowledge from every topic of interest to him. In "Kosmos" he described the Milky Way, planets, comets, cosmic space, the movements of the Earth in space, its surface and its interior. He wrote about plants, animals, climate zones, volcanoes, magnetism, microorganisms, rocks, but also about people - social migrations, politics and social changes - all in a mutually related relationship.

8. Life full of adventures

His biography seems to be like an adventure novel or movie script, but it is completely true. He climbed up to a few volcanoes, including - considered at his time as the highest peak of the world - Chimborazo. Today it is known that it is not the highest mountain, although it is considered the most distant from the Earth's centre of gravity. No one has ever been at the same altitude as him before. During his five-year trip around Latin America he has also explored the Orinoko river basins, Cuba, Peru and Mexico. At the age of 60, he made a trip to Russia at the Mountains of Ural and Almaty, to the Chinese Jungary and the Caspian Sea. He travelled through steppes, jungles, rivers, mountains and forests. Many times being in danger, experiencing illness and sense of lost. He never gave up and always greedily tried to understand the world of nature.

9. Hypothesis of connected continents

He was the first to suggest that South America and Africa were once united.

10. Inspiration for hundreds of scientists, philosophers and artists

Charles Darwin mentioned him as the most important inspiration, without reading his Personal Narrative he would probably never have set off on the famous Beagle voyage. Humboldt had a huge influence on Darwin's view of nature as well as on the way in which he wrote. He was also the main inspiration of George Perkins Marsh, the author of Man and Nature, a book which was the first to show the harmful influence of man on nature in such a comprehensive way. Without Humboldt, John Muir would never have made his way on his way to Yosemite Valley and would not become a great advocate of nature conservation in the United States. He also had a significant impact on the philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, as well as on the biologist, darwinist and illustrator Ernst Haeckel. He was a very close friend of Goethe. Humboldt also helped hundreds of scientists through financial support or expanding their contacts and influence. He helped, among others, Carl Gustav Jung's grandfather scientific career.

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We could go on and on with Humboldt's influences and discoveries. His combination of subjective experiences with science and his multidimensional, holistic view of nature has infected the entire scientific world. Today we can observe such narratives in every natural textbook or program on the BBC. Alexander von Humboldt was a truly unique figure and deserves to be remembered and recalled much more often!

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Bibliography:

De Terra, H. (1979). Humboldt: The life and times of Alexander von Humboldt, 1769-1859. O
Nicolson, M. (1990). Alexander von Humboldt and the geography of vegetation. Romanticism and the Sciences, 169-85.
Wulf, A. (2015). The invention of nature: Alexander von Humboldt's new world. Knopf.