 He collected specimens of plants and animals, dividing the growing collection so that if a portion was lost, other parts might survive.Humboldt saw the need for an approach to science that could account for the harmony of nature among the diversity of the physical world.For Humboldt, "the unity of nature" meant that it was the interrelation of all physical sciences—such as the conjoining between biology, meteorology and geology—that determined where specific plants grew.