Synopses & Reviews
Today, an entomologist in a laboratory can gaze at a butterfly pupa with a microscope so powerful that the swirling cells on the pupaand#8217;s skin look like a galaxy. She can activate a single gene or knock it out. What she canand#8217;t do is discover how the insect behaves in its natural habitatand#8212;which means she doesnand#8217;t know what steps to take to preserve it from extinction, nor how any particular gene may interact with the environment. Four hundred years ago, a fifty-year-old Dutch woman set sail on a solo scientific expedition to study insect metamorphosis. She could not have imagined the routine magic that scientists perform todayand#8212;but her absolute insistence on studying insects in their natural habitats was so far ahead of its time that it is only now coming back into favor. Chrysalis restores Maria Sibylla Merian to her rightful place in the history of science, taking us from golden-age Amsterdam to the Surinam tropics to modern laboratories where Merianand#8217;s insights fuel new approaches to both ecology and genetics.
Review
"A breathtaking example of scholarship and storytelling, enriched by ample illustrations of Merian's work." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Todd...emulates Merian's richly contextual approach in her vivid descriptions of every facet of her subject's vibrant world as she insightfully chronicles Merian's extraordinary life." Booklist
Synopsis
Before Darwin, before Audubon, there was Merian. An artist turned naturalist known for her botanical illustrations, she was born just sixteen years after Galileo proclaimed that the earth orbited the sun. But at the age of fifty she sailed from Europe to the New World on a solo scientific expedition to study insect metamorphosis; an unheard-of journey for any naturalist at that time, much less a woman. When she returned she produced a book that secured her reputation, only to have it savaged in the nineteenth century by scientists who disdained the work of "amateurs."
Exquisitely written and illustrated, Chrysalis takes us from golden-age Amsterdam to the Surinam tropics to modern laboratories where Merian's insights fuel a new branch of biology. Kim Todd brings to life a seventeenth-century woman whose boldness and vision would still be exceptional today.
Synopsis
Traces the life and work of the pioneering seventeenth-century woman naturalist who defied period conventions throughout her career, discussing the scientific and political backdrop of her life, her unprecedented solo expedition to study insect metamorphosis in the New World, and her role in the establishment of a new branch of biology. 18,000 first printing.
About the Author
Todd, a former newspaper reporter, holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.F.A. from the University of Montana.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE and#149;
ONE: The Most Noble of All the Worms and#149;
TWO: Godly Miracles in a Little Book and#149;
THREE: That Which Is Found in the Fens and Heath and#149;
FOUR: Le Grande Monde and#149;
FIVE: An Awesome and Expensive Trip and#149;
SIX: Far Out into the Wilderness and#149;
SEVEN: The First and Strangest Work Thatand#160; Had Ever Been Painted in America and#149;
EIGHT: The Modern World Is Very Sensitive and#149;
NINE: Because of Its Color So Special and#149;
CONCLUSION and#149;
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and#149;
NOTES and#149;
SOURCES and#149;
INDEX and#149;and#160;