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Alexander von Humboldt, the inventor of nature

The Shakespeare of science, comparable in fame to Napoleon Bonaparte, inspiration of Charles Darwin, the father of

modern ecological thinking: Alexander von Humboldt is considered by many to be a lost hero of science, and today,

almost 250 years since his birth, his story still has much to teach us.

The last portrait of Alexander von Humboldt by Julius Schrader (1859). In the background the Chimborazo (source

Wikipedia)

Childhood, family and the changing world Born in 1769 to an aristocratic Prussian family, Alexander von Humboldt remained fatherless at the tender age of nine,

and his education, along with his brother, was entrusted to the best prelates of the time, belonging to the enlightenment

school, who aroused in the two brothers the search for truth. It was an era of great transformations: the Industrial

Revolution was at its beginnings, machines were changing the way of working, moving and producing; science began to

take on an international approach thanks to the first collaborations, first in astronomy and then in mathematics and

physics; two revolutions were approaching in two key countries in the Western world, America and France; subsistence

farming gave way to specialised crops; new measuring instruments such as telescopes and microscopes were

revolutionising the study of nature and great researchers in the field of physics, mathematics and physiology, such as

Galvani, Bernoulli and Celsius, to name a few, wrote the history of science.

Studies, first trips and encounters Since adolescence, Alexander von Humboldt demonstrated his curious and restless soul, consisting of scientific studies

on books, but mainly characterised by experiments, expeditions into the wild, mining inspections and studies on

electricity, not only on frogs, a trend initiated by the famous physiologist Galvani, but also on his own body. These were

the years when the young Alexander expressed himself as the son of enlightenment, dedicating himself to many different

disciplines, keeping them separate. An approach he later changed, also thanks to the encounter with prominent

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personalities of the time, such as Goethe - with whom von Humboldt shared reflections and experimental practices and

thanks to whom he discovered the proximity of science, poetry and art - and Kant, thanks to whom he started to acquire

a systemic vision of the world, which would characterise his thinking right from his first trip to South America, organised

with the aim of finding out how "all the forces of nature are intertwined and interconnected".

Pico de Teide, Tenerife, one of the volcanoes climbed by Alexander von Humboldt

Expeditions and encounters The innumerable and adventurous trips of von Humboldt made him, as well as a naturalist, a veritable explorer. In his

first intercontinental expedition, along with the botanist Aimé Bonpland, he faced stormy crossings, climbed mountains

and scoured forests, going through the present Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba and Mexico. In addition to

describing plants, animals and rocks, the scientist laid the foundations for the reconstruction of complex phenomena,

such as the effects of human activity - from deforestation to the deviation of rivers for irrigation purposes - on the balance

of nature, developing the idea of climate change due to anthropic causes, launching an alarm for future generations and

becoming the father of the environmental movement. Upon returning from this expedition, von Humboldt met US President Thomas Jefferson, who defined him "the man with

the most scientific knowledge of his time". On this occasion, the naturalist shared all the information gathered on his

journeys, demonstrating to be, besides a great scientist, also a supporter of the free circulation of knowledge, because -

he affirmed - science transcends individual and national interests. In just a few years, Humboldt became famous for his explorations and studies. Celebrated throughout Europe, he

became the subject of the attention of the sovereigns of the time, starting with the King of Prussia, Frederic William III,

who offered him a salary with no special obligations, and later by the Tsar of Russian, Nicholas I, who financed a very

important journey for him through the Urals and Siberia to the border with China, to gather information about the

country's mineral resources. As a profound scholar of the world in its complexity, of which man is part, von Humboldt could not help but having

something to say about the relationship between society and nature and the exploitation of resources by the colonists.

Albeit with his contradictions, Alexander did not hide his convictions against slavery and colonialism and on many

occasions shared his sympathies for the French and American revolutions and for the liberation of Venezuela and

Colombia from Spanish domination and for the laws on the protection of the forests on the part of Simon Bolivar (one of

the many encounters of von Humboldt, who would subsequently criticise the Liberador for his authoritarian deviation).

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Fame and recognition From the description of the currents to that of the magnetic equator, from the identification of animal and plant species to

the intuition of the existence of climatic zones by altitude and latitude, from the foundations for evolutionary theory to

those of modern geology, von Humboldt used every moment and every penny to observe, narrate and understand

nature, also experimenting with scientific outreach through detailed illustrated publications. He inspired great scientists, politicians and artists of his time and of the years to come, from Darwin to Haeckel (father of

ecology), from Poe to Verne, but one of his greatest merits is to have made science popular and accessible, to have

helped us to overcome the widespread tendency to separate science from art. Because according to the explorer and

naturalist of Prussian origin - who in his travels had always accompanied careful observation of phenomena and species

with a strong emotional engagement - nature can be understood only by using the imagination. It is no coincidence, therefore, that in the centenary of his birth, von Humboldt was celebrated by 80,000 people in Berlin

and 25,000 in Central Park, New York. He was a veritable star, whose thinking has marked our culture for ever and

whose story still has much to teach us.

The Humboldt penguin, so called because it swims in the current of the same name that flows from south to north off the

coasts of Chile and Peru, described by Alexander von Humboldt in his work Cosmos.

By Anna Pellizzone

To find out more:

• The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf, Edizioni Luiss.

• http://www.huffingtonpost.it/giuseppe-fantasia/chi-era-alexander-von-humboldt-leroe-perduto-della-

scienza_a_22064744/

• http://lameladinewton-micromega.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2017/05/11/humboldt-natura-giustizia-e-

liberta/