Lesson 4 Find and Do What You Love
A Passion for Science and Art
Today, it is common ____ that butterflies go through an egg-caterpillar-pupa cycle.
____, until the 17th century, many people regarded the butterfly and the caterpillar as entirely different creatures.
They ____ insects were evil creatures that came from mud.
Butterflies, on the other hand, were considered “summer birds,” and it was commonly believed that they just fell ____ the sky in warm weather and vanished in the fall.
In those days, one ____ stood out as a pioneer.
Although having an interest in insects was considered odd and weird, she observed many cases of insect *____ and recorded these invaluable scientific observations through her unique paintings.
Her name was Maria Sibylla Merian.
Merian was born in 1647 in the city of Frankfurt, ____.
When she was still ____, she became very interested in painting flowers.
It is said that she once ____ over a wealthy neighbor’s wall to find flowers that she could paint.
She took ____ tulips without the owner’s permission.
She must have been unaware of how ____ they were at the time.
When ____ Maria confessed her act, the neighbor asked to see the painting.
____ her painting, he was so impressed that he only asked for the painting as compensation.
When she was 13, Merian began to develop a keen interest in ____.
It was unusual for a young girl to be passionate about ____, spiders, and other insects, but Merian was obsessed to the point that she would sometimes watch them for weeks on end.
She carefully painted each step of their life cycles, depicting even subtle ____.
Even after Merian got married
Even after Merian got married and ____ children, her passion for insects did not die down.
She kept ____ and butterflies at home in order to study and paint them.
To capture each moment of change, she spent ____ nights awake, watching and waiting.
In her house were so ____ plants and jars of insects that her kitchen began to look more like a research lab.
After almost 20 ____ of hard work, Merian published a book about insects in 1679.
There had already been books about ____, but Merian’s was special.
While no other books had ever depicted the full ____ cycle of insects, Merian’s showed each stage of metamorphosis in detail.
In addition, Merian ____ the relationships between living things by illustrating insects within their natural surroundings.
This was different from other drawings of the time, ____ displayed only single specimens on a plain background.
In an era ____ most scientists perceived plants and animals individually, Merian paid attention to how they fit together.
Many years passed and Merian moved to Amsterdam, where she was able to sell her paintings and view marvelous and exotic butterfly specimens that other enthusiasts had ____.
However, ____ these lifeless creatures stuck in cases only made Merian desire to see them in their real habitat.
Finally, in June 1699, at 52 years of age, Merian and her youngest daughter got on a ship headed for ____, a territory belonging to the Netherlands in South America.
This was a bold challenge.
In addition to being a ____ naturalist in the male-dominated world of 17th-century science, Merian was also setting out on an expedition with purely scientific goals before it became common.
She spent about two ____ in Surinam, exploring the rainforests.
Confronted with intense heat, fierce tropical storms, and dangerous animals such as tarantulas and flesh-eating fish, Merian ____ to collect every sample she could get.
In her own house, she kept the insects she brought out of the forests and ____ numerous descriptions and paintings.
Eventually she painted more ____ 90 species of insects and at least 60 species of plants.
With these paintings she published her life’s ____, Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam, in 1705.
The book showed Merian’s passion for ____ insects and painting.
It was a truly remarkable book for ____ time, which contained colorful and detailed paintings of butterflies, bees, spiders, frogs, and even snakes.
One illustration shows a bright blue butterfly flying over the colorful flowers of a *pomegranate plant, with another butterfly sitting ____ and a caterpillar creeping down the flower stem.
Another depicts two spider webs ____ between tree branches, with tarantulas and ants attacking their prey.
When the book was published, it had a tremendous ____ on the scientific understanding of insects at the time.
Some scientists
Some ____ even used her illustrations in the classification of species.
Her work also brought new life not just to insect study but to the ____ world.
Goethe, a celebrated German poet, also must have ____ impressed by her work.
He praised Merian’s ____ for weaving art and science together.
In spite of this success, the ____ of her work faded after her death.
It is thought that this was because she was not a ____ researcher and had no formal education.
Furthermore, her work dealt with flowers and insects, not the historical or religious ____ that prevailed in those days.
In the 20th century, however, ____ Sibylla Merian’s work was reevaluated.
Historians and artists began to recognize her extraordinary accomplishments and her passion that ____ so much to early modern science.
In recognition of her ____, Germany put her portrait on their 500-mark bill, and today many schools there are named after her.
Maria ____ Merian was a naturalist whose passion for plants and insects left its mark on the science world.
While other scientists of the day were debating whether or not insects grew ____ of mud, she demonstrated the stages of metamorphosis.
To the ____ world, Merian was one of the first to show the artistic power of nature.
Despite the doubts, suspicion, and ridicule she faced for being so different from “typical” women, Merian is now ____ as one of the greatest scientific illustrators in history.