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Borrowing from the elegant visual style of the German-born Swiss naturalist, entomologist and botanical artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), this animation celebrates her many notable contributions to the natural sciences in an age when such work was widely considered the domain of men. A dedicated observer of plants and insects in particular, two of her many achievements include helping to dispel the once widely held belief that insects spontaneously emerge from dust, mud or rotten meat, and observing metamorphosis in rich detail. And 300 years after her death, her seminal book, The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname (1705), which depicts insects and plants in the jungles of South America, is still considered one of the most beautiful and groundbreaking entomology books ever assembled, with editions of the pioneering work being reprinted as recently as 2010.
Video by The Royal Society and BBC Ideas
Animation: Studio Panda
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Ageing and death
Death is a trip – how new research links near-death and DMT experiences
9 minutes
video
The environment
Photographs of rainforests dissolving in acid strike a beautiful note of warning
10 minutes
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Technology and the self
Adaptive technologies have helped Stephen Hawking, and many more, find their voice
5 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
Experience the dazzling displays that fireflies create when humans are far away
5 minutes
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Stories and literature
Solaris and beyond – Stanisław Lem’s antidotes to the bores of American sci-fi
7 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
To renew Yosemite, California should embrace a once-outlawed Indigenous practice
6 minutes
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Music
Before the Beatles dropped acid, a BBC workshop was creating far-out sounds
6 minutes
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Art
Is paying with hand-drawn banknotes artistry or forgery? The knotty case of J S G Boggs
10 minutes
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Human rights and justice
Portugal stole Goa’s lands and narratives. Can they ever truly be returned?
19 minutes