Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis

Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis
by Kim Todd

Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis
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Book Summary Information

Author: Kim Todd
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-12-03
ISBN: 0156032996
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Harvest Books

Book Reviews of Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis

Book Review: More than just a very good biography-
Summary: 5 Stars

With two new books being released this week about Merian (one a bio, the other a collection of her art), many will have their interest piqued to read further about this brilliant, pioneering natural historian/artist. Kim Todd writes well, has mastered her subject, and seamlessly weaves interesting asides about slavery and abolitionism, Darwin and Linnaeus, birds of paradise and peacock flowers, Peter the Great and the aftermath of the Thirty Years War, and more into one of those fascinating works that compel you to scour the bibliography and notes for more to delve into. How Merian is left out of most, if not all, general history books is baffling (sexism, misogyny, and the old-boy-network yet again)? A fascinating life story, and Kim Todd's considerable gift with prose narrative make this a book that even those with no prior interest in the subjects of metamorphosis or 16th/17th century exploration will enjoy. It has made me want to read more about the early years of natural history, pre-Darwin.(Todd's earlier book, TINKERING WITH EDEN, is also excellent).

Summary of Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis

Today, an entomologist in a laboratory can gaze at a butterfly pupa with a microscope so powerful that the swirling cells on the pupa's skin look like a galaxy. She can activate a single gene or knock it out. What she can't do is discover how the insect behaves in its natural habitat-which means she doesn'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 today-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 Merian's insights fuel new approaches to both ecology and genetics.

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