Like nearly everyone working at a desk on some part of their PhD, my day started with opening up the web browser and blinking a little sleepily at the Google search homepage. Very occasionally the google search doodle provides a nice little bit of procrastination - today was one of those days.
Aside from the little touch of nature making it into the world of letters and numbers and screens of digitised information, the story behind the picture is also pretty charming.
If you haven't read it already, or missed out on it, I recommend the following article on the artist and adventurous entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian. She crafted stunning images of previously undiscovered animals and plants, raised insects herself (dispelling the notion that they appeared spontaneously from the mud) and made it through a pretty nasty bout of malaria in order to produce her beautiful book of wildlife from Suriname.
I've so far been lucky enough to escape malaria whilst doing tropical science, didn't have to sail out to my field sites in Borneo to do my work either (though I would have loved to if I'd had the time), and don't expect to be ignored by the scientific community for not writing in Latin. And despite having an easier time on all those counts, the tiny little sketch book I take to the field is still mostly empty!
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I particularly like to hear about inspiring women ecologists, and hopefully you also will enjoy Maria Sibylla Merian's story.
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