Before Darwin, before Audubon, there was Maria Sibylla Merian.

An artist turned naturalist, Merian was born just 16 years after Galileo proclaimed that the Earth orbited the sun. But at the age of 50, she sailed from Europe to South America on a solo scientific expedition to study insect metamorphosis—an unheard-of journey for any naturalist at that time, much less a woman.

When she returned, she produced a book that secured her reputation, only to have it savaged in the 19th century by scientists who disdained the work of "amateurs."

Chrysalis takes us from golden age Amsterdam to the Surinam tropics to modern laboratories where Merian's insights fuel a new branch of biology. The New Yorker called it a "spellbinding biography." In it, Kim Todd brings to life a 17th century woman whose boldness and vision would still be exceptional today.