Kim Todd

Before Darwin, before Audubon, there was Maria Sibylla Merian. An artist turned naturalist, Merian was born just 16 years after Galileo proclaimed that the Earth orbited the sun. But at the age of 50, she sailed from Europe to South America 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...