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Nature 441, 286 (18 May 2006) | doi:10.1038/441286a; Published online 17 May 2006

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Lives after death

Steven Shapin1

BOOK REVIEWEDAlexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography

by Nicolaas A. Rupke

Peter Berg: 2005. 320 pp. $38.95, £22.80, euro dollar32.50

It's said that you only live once, but a great scientist has many lives. These lives are not, however, personal existences but biographies, written by others, that make sense of the life and identify its historical significance.