With these words, Alexander von Humboldt (1770- 1859 ) seemed set to establish himself as one of the leading scientists of all time. But although his name survives in the occasional mountain, small town, other topgraphical feature or university, he has been almost forgotten today.
Humboldt's chief achievement was to create the very notion of ecology as the quotation above suggests. But far from entering the pantheon of great scientists, or of his illustrious contemporaries and aquaintances, great revolutionaries such as Bolivar and Napoleon [was Napoleon a 'revolutionary' ? A thesis in itself!], Beethoven, Hegel, etc etc he has been condemned to an undeserved obscurity.
There may be a reason for this, for Humboldt was one of the first researchers to expound the notion of Racial Equality.
Even today, such sentiments are rare in the scientific world. Most make no comment on the matter, occasionally a reactionary professor speaks his redneck mind, but usually silence. For Humboldt, however, it was a core part of his massive volume "The Cosmos", which summed up his life's achievement.
There are other examples; in classical studies, the highly conservative Aristotle is much preferable in some quarters to the audacious Atomists, such as Leukippus. Similarly, Darwins theory of Evolution has been found much preferable to the establishment in general and populist frauds (not the fault of Darwin himself it should be said) being superficially more amenable to "Survival of the Fittest" type- theories, which can lead into racialism if not thought through properly.
As too the case of Galileo shows [see Brechts play], science is never far from the grasp of power politics. Free science, like free art, must ensure it stays above prejudices of the day.