Art is the Solution

Spectacled Caiman and a False Coral Snake Source: Wikimedia Commons The boundary between art and science is often very distinct, but, in some situations the line can be blurred. While art is subjective by its nature and contains inherent bias, it can be a valuable scientific tool in that it provides a record of the artist’s experiences and observations (like a visual lab notebook). This is certainly true of the art of Maria Sibylla Merian. Merian was a naturalist who studied insects. Although her work touched upon other animals as well, she is best known as one of the founders of the field of entomology. Throughout her career, Merian published several books documenting the lifecycle of many species of insects, with an emphasis on the process of metamorphosis, something she studied in great detail. She produced hundreds of stunning illustrations to accompany these books, and (given the topic of this blog) those images are what’s most interesting to me.  Inflorescence of B...