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When I encountered a statue of Alexander von Humboldt in my local park and the plaque read “In honor of the most accomplished traveller of this or any other age”, I knew I had to learn more about his life

It turns out, there is a fantastic, award winning book about Humboldt: The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf.

This is what I learned from Alexander von Humboldt

Amazing things about Humboldt:

• Humboldt was friends with Thomas Jefferson and Goethe and second in fame only to Napoleon in his day
• Humboldt was the first person to describe many of the phenomenon of biology and ecology – it pervades out understanding of nature today
• He was the first person to climb over 20000 ft
• Was the first scientific explorer to do an expedition to South America
• Was one of the first scientist to speak out against slavery by the East India company
• Invited by the Czar of Russia to explore Siberia where he discovered diamonds
• Related to the Prussian Royal family
• Humboldt has more things named after him around the world than anyone else