Vladimir Nabokov, Lepidopterist

January 26, 2011

Who knew that Vladimir Nabokov was a self-taught butterfly expert? While a curator of lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology in 1945, he “came up with a sweeping hypothesis for the evolution” of Polyommatus blues. While his scientific ideas were not taken seriously at the time, just this past Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, scientists reported that he was “absolutely right.” You can read more about it here.

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