French self-taught naturalist who invented the first glass aquarium in 1832 to study marine organisms in controlled conditions. Born the daughter of a shoemaker in Juillac, she moved to Paris at 18 and worked as a dressmaker before marrying English merchant James Power and settling in Sicily. There she taught herself natural history and became fascinated by the paper nautilus, proving through her aquarium experiments that the animal produces its own shell rather than obtaining it from other organisms. She later designed two additional aquarium types for underwater research. Called the 'Mother of Aquariophily' by biologist Richard Owen, she published major works on Sicilian marine and terrestrial fauna before losing her research collections in a shipwreck in 1843.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica