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Sto caricando le informazioni... Alexander von Humboldt: How the Most Famous Scientist of the Romantic Age Found the Soul of Naturedi Maren Meinhardt
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Alexander von Humboldt was the most famous scientist and explorer of his day. "I view him as one of the greatest ornaments of the age," wrote Thomas Jefferson, and he received Humboldt in the White House in 1804. Ralph Waldo Emerson celebrated Humboldt as "one of those wonders of the world," and John Muir exclaimed, "How intensely I desire to be a Humboldt!" The great German poet Goethe was Humboldt's friend, and after reading Humboldt's work, Charles Darwin yearned to travel to distant lands. From Humboldt Redwoods State Park in California to Humboldthain park in Berlin, from South America's Humboldt Current to Greenland's Humboldt Glacier, numerous places, plants, and animals around the world are named after him. Born in Berlin in 1769, the young Alexander von Humboldt moved in the circles of Romantic writers and thinkers, studied mining, and worked as an inspector of mines before his "longing for wide and unknown things" made him resign and begin his great scientific expedition. For five years, from 1799 to 1804, Humboldt traveled through Central and South America. He and his collaborator, the French botanist Aim ?Bonpland, journeyed on foot, by boat, and with mules through grasslands and forests, on rivers and across mountain ranges, and when Humboldt returned to Europe his coffers were full of scientific treasures. His legacy includes a sprawling body of knowledge, from the charge found in electric eels to the distribution of plants across different climate zones, and from the bioluminescence of jellyfish to the composition of falling stars. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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 Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni...GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)509Natural sciences and mathematics General Science History, geographic treatment, biographyClassificazione LCVotoMedia: (4)
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Alexander Von Humboldt: How the Most Famous Scientist of the Romantic Age Found the Soul of Nature by Maren Meinhardt is a biography of this famous German scientist. Ms. Meinhardt the editor for Anthropology, German Literature, and Science at the Times Literary Supplement.
I knew next to nothing on Von Humboldt, except that the name sounded familiar. As I learned reading the first few pages of Alexander Von Humboldt: How the Most Famous Scientist of the Romantic Age Found the Soul of Nature by Maren Meinhardt it is because there are several places in the United States named after the famous man.
This is a very readable book, exposing people to the “most celebrated scientist of the 19th century”. The author starts by writing about Humboldt’s childhood in a well-to-do family, headed by a well connected father.
After the death of his mother, Humboldt was financially secured and could start on his scientific expedition, which took five years. This is where the book gets very interesting, he travels through Central and South America in the late 1700s, taking measurements, climbing mountains and studying the wild life.
I can see why the author is trying to revive the interest in this man. He is a good man, a great scientist and modern by today’s standards – something that can be said on very few people. He is not anti-Semitic, spoke out against slavery, rejected his aristocratic privileges to embrace science and encourage those who came after him.
I found this book very interesting, and well researched. I thought the author tried to stay away from being too “science-ee”, but couldn’t help herself delve into the importance of his work. Instead of making the book an introduction to the layman and spark interest in this fascinating man, we have a book which is half fascinating travel journal, and half very basic introduction to natural sciences. (