An Artist and a Scientist

Maria Sibylla Merian (b. April 2, 1647; d. January 13, 1717.)

Whom I had never heard of, until I went to Google this morning and saw today's Google Doodle:

Which led me to an informative article in the CSM (found here).

Which led me to want to look at more of her work.  I found a wonderful site with all sorts of pictures here.

Here's my favorite (so far!):

See the tiny baby lizard in the bottom right corner?!?

There are so many things I find amazing about her life and work - she was painting and publishing her work in the late 1600's, she traveled to Suriname with her daughters to paint at the dawn of the 18th century, and she helped change scientific thinking about insects (the focus of much of her work).  Wow.

Thanks Google!