THE INVENTION OF NATURE

WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY MERLIN SHELDRAKE WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2016 A thrilling adventure story Bill Bryson Dazzling Literary Review Brilliant Sunday Express Extraordinary and gripping New Scientist A superb biography The Economist An exhilarating armchair voyage GILES MILTON Mail on Sunday Alexander von Humboldt 1769 1859 is the great lost scientist more things are named after him than anyone else There are towns rivers mountain ranges the ocean current that runs along the South American coast there s a penguin a giant squid even the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon His colourful adventures read like something out of a Boy s Own story Humboldt explored deep into the rainforest climbed the world s highest volcanoes and inspired princes and presidents scientists and poets alike Napoleon was jealous of him Simon Bolívar s revolution was fuelled by his ideas Darwin set sail on the Beagle because of Humboldt and Jules Verne s Captain Nemo owned all his many books He simply was as one contemporary put it the greatest man since the Deluge Taking us on a fantastic voyage in his footsteps racing across anthrax infected Russia or mapping tropical rivers ali