Booktalk

I just finished The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf. It dovetails nicely with the collaborative MS Science unit on ecology starting this month. It is the story of the Alexander von Humboldt whose observations, writings, and dynamic life founded the idea of similarities between climate zones and  the inter-connectedness of nature: ecology. He inspired Darwin, Agassiz, Thoreau, and a generation of scientists and nature writers; virtually inventing that genre by weaving the emotion of poetry through his meticulous observations.

The book does a wonderful job of illustrating how science-as-we-know-it evolved from philosophy as the Enlightenment snowballed during the Age of Reason (the word 'scientist' was coined in 1834!).  It was a discipline discovering and defining itself. A very exciting time!

Humboldt's enduring contribution wasn't so much his discovery within a single field, rather it was his wide-angle embrace of all sciences as a prism through which to understand the workings of nature. His energy, intellect, and curiosity were unparalleled in the age. The scope of his scholarship, his reading, his travel, and his impact is dizzying.

Like so many of these books about the 18th century, it left me amazed at how the infrastructure of the time worked! Letters and trunks full of botanical artifacts shipped out on passing boats from the other side of the world and making it to their destinations, writing and receiving thousands of letters a year despite an often shattered Europe, traveling by canoe and mules through jungles and using over 10,000 carriage horses in the course of exploring Russia!



THE INVENTION OF NATURE from Sea Blue Media on Vimeo.