A French sculptor transfigures her family’s long-protected secret into artIn 1816, the French naval ship Medusa ran aground off the coast of Senegal. Some of the officers and crew escaped on lifeboats, but nearly 150 of its passengers were forced to board an improvised raft. The raft remained adrift for thirteen terrifying days of delirium, chaos, murder, and cannibalism. Only fifteen men survived.Clarisse Griffon du Bellay’s ancestor was ...

A breathtakingly illustrated look at botanical spirals and the scientists who puzzled over themCharles Darwin was driven to distraction by plant spirals, growing so exasperated that he once begged a friend to explain the mystery “if you wish to save me from a miserable death.” The legendary naturalist was hardly alone in feeling tormented by these patterns. Plant spirals captured the gaze of Leonardo da Vinci and became Alan Turing’s final obsession. This book tell...