Great lives
Alexander von Humboldt, the explorer who taught the world to see nature whole
10 min
Once the most famous scientist alive, he reshaped how we understand ecosystems and climate — then faded from memory. Why he matters again now.
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Show notes
Humboldt used a fifty-two shade cyanometer to measure the blue of the sky during his South American travels.
The eighteen hundred two ascent of Mount Chimborazo revealed that oxygen deficiency causes mountain sickness.
Humboldt identified human-induced climate change at Lake Valencia by linking forest destruction to dropping water levels.
The invention of isotherms allowed scientists to map global temperature patterns across different continents for the first time.
Charles Darwin carried Humboldt’s personal narratives on the Beagle to help him understand the natural world.
Anti-German sentiment during the World Wars led to the erasure of Humboldt’s legacy from American history books.
In this episode
- 1Intro1 min
- 2The Polymath’s Inheritance2 min
- 3The Chimborazo Revelation2 min
- 4The First Climate Scientist3 min
- 5The Invisible Influence2 min
- 6Outro1 min
Sources
- Alexander von Humboldt | Biography, Discoveries, & Facts | Britannica
- Why Is the Man Who Predicted Climate Change Forgotten? | National Geographic
- Alexander von Humboldt: The Forgotten Father of Environmentalism - The Atlantic
- Alexander von Humboldt (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Alexander von Humboldt: the first environmentalist - BBC Science Focus Magazine
- The Legacy of the Man Who Changed Our View of Nature - Yale E360
- A Science Hero, Lost and Found
- The Explorations Of An Early Climate Change Detective
- Alexander von Humboldt: The Man Who Mapped The World
- Alexander von Humboldt and the Invention of Nature: How One of the Last True Polymaths Pioneered the Cosmos of Connections – The Marginalian
- Humboldt in the New World | National Endowment for the Humanities
- Humboldt and Bonpland's Landmark Expedition to the Spanish Colonies of South America (1799-1804) | Encyclopedia.com
- Alexander von Humboldt and the ascent of Chimborazo | Deutsches Historisches Museum Journal
- The Pioneering Maps of Alexander von Humboldt
- The Project Gutenberg eBook of Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 1, by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland
- American Expedition 1799–1804
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