ernst haeckel: the fist living being to see (and draw) invisible living beings.
irudia
Once more, we have been forced to look back in time in our search for modernity. We have travelled 200 years into the past in order to come across scientist Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (Potsdam 1834 - Jena 1919). A man of many talents - he was a biologist, a philosopher, a doctor - and as his illustrations clearly prove, he was an exact and highly-talented artist.

Though it may sound like a joke, the number of scientists in 'civilised' countries that are casting doubt on Darwin's theory of evolution is growing. This proves two things. On the one hand, not only does humanity's ability to think always evolve, but it can also suffer regression. On the other, a university degree doesn't actually mean anything. There are a plethora of academics with university degrees who believe the world began with Adam and Eve. We don't really care what people believe, but, given the choice, and seeing that we are fairly 'paranormal' ourselves, we'd much rather lose ourselves in the world offered by the drawings of the inventor of the word 'ecology.' Ernst Haeckel was a fervent believer of evolution, when that concept was a radical and uncomfortable position to champion. He was responsible for introducing Charles Darwin's theories to Germany, and he carried on his work. He carried out a lot of investigation and one of his most important publications on the topic was his Generelle Morphologie der Organismen, published in 1866. Darwin's theory of evolution was mainly populated by well-known animals and beings, visible to the human eye. Haeckel broadened his studies to include smaller and lesser-known creatures. He was the first to distinguish between unicellular and multi- cellular life forms, and he discovered and investigated polyps, radiolarians, micro-plankton and other forms of life. He discovered, named and drew more than a 1,000 specie. The importance and amount of the work he did was vast. He travelled extensively in order to carry out his investigations and he was the author of many scientific papers and books. And not only in the field of biology. As previously mentioned, he also wrote about philosophy, society and politics. His work was in the then contemporary style of romanticism, but his writings also betray a progressive and daring viewpoint for the time. He was the first to speak of the concept of 'World War I', until then regarded as the 'Great War.' This demonstrates his grasp of geopolitics, because the name shows he foresaw that there would be a second one. One of his most incredible skills, however, is to be found on paper, but not in words. He created hundreds of engravings based on his illustrations and watercolours. Many of these can be found in his beautiful book, Kunstformen der Natur. 200 years may have passed but it's one of the most contemporary pieces of work we have seen lately. The balde couldn't let the chance to show some of his work pass.