I would imagine that a lot of people are using the current period of enforced inactivity to catch up on their reading. So I'll offer one book recommendation: The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf.
It is essentially a biography and explanation of the work of Alexander von Humboldt. Having just finished it, I am amazed that when I did biology at university Mr H was not mentioned once. He effectively invented the modern approach to what we could loosely called environmental science, something which covers everything from ecology to geology.
It is quite possible that without Humboldt's work Darwin would never have been set on the train of enquiry which led him to the ideas published in The Origin of Species. Darwin is certainly clear about the debt he owed him.
Humboldt has largely been forgotten, certainly in the English speaking world. This is possibly due to the cultural knock on influence of two world wars fought against Germany (Humboldt being Prussian). Yet this man has more places and geographical features named after him than any other human being and deservedly so IMO. I suggest that he did for the study of the natural world what Einstein did for physics.
The book itself is a delight to read and it is in my view an important one, which anybody interested in the development of the way we look at the world these days will find interesting.
All I ever knew about Humboldt was that he walked around S America for a bit and had a current in the Pacific Ocean named after him. Having read this book, I now regard him as being one of the all time greats of enlightened western thought. There's also a BBC documentary on YouTube about him which is quite informative.
It is essentially a biography and explanation of the work of Alexander von Humboldt. Having just finished it, I am amazed that when I did biology at university Mr H was not mentioned once. He effectively invented the modern approach to what we could loosely called environmental science, something which covers everything from ecology to geology.
It is quite possible that without Humboldt's work Darwin would never have been set on the train of enquiry which led him to the ideas published in The Origin of Species. Darwin is certainly clear about the debt he owed him.
Humboldt has largely been forgotten, certainly in the English speaking world. This is possibly due to the cultural knock on influence of two world wars fought against Germany (Humboldt being Prussian). Yet this man has more places and geographical features named after him than any other human being and deservedly so IMO. I suggest that he did for the study of the natural world what Einstein did for physics.
The book itself is a delight to read and it is in my view an important one, which anybody interested in the development of the way we look at the world these days will find interesting.
All I ever knew about Humboldt was that he walked around S America for a bit and had a current in the Pacific Ocean named after him. Having read this book, I now regard him as being one of the all time greats of enlightened western thought. There's also a BBC documentary on YouTube about him which is quite informative.
