Today; an entomologist in a laboratory can gaze at a butterfly pupa with a microscope so powerful that the swirling cells on the puparsquo;s skin look like a galaxy. She can activate a single gene or knock it out. What she canrsquo;t do is discover how the insect behaves in its natural habitatmdash;which means she doesnrsquo;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 todaymdash;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 Merianrsquo;s insights fuel new approaches to both ecology and genetics.
#3237853 in eBooks 2012-10-03 2012-10-03File Name: B00FG9GDLA
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Some folks may not like that writing approachBy Robert F. DeVellisThis is written in an academic; rather than a popular; style. Some folks may not like that writing approach. But the content is excellent and documents the musical interactions among black and white musicians over an extended period during and after slavery. It gives an important and often overlooked glimpse into the origins of a lot of popular music.2 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Creolization of American CultureBy John F. ReidBought because I know the author personally and he is brilliant. No way its not going to be a great book!3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. IndispensibleBy Richard D. EnoA remarkable work on the sources of American musical and choreographic culture; thick with information and juicily written. As a student of early minstrelsy and the origins of the American banjo; I put the book on my "indispensible" list alongside Hans Nathan"s "Dan Emmet" and Lhamons "Raising Cain". My only complaint is that; for a study based (aptly and ingeniously) on the work of a visual artist; it includes far too few illustrations.