A self-taught seamstress invented the aquarium to study octopuses

For centuries, naturalists were divided over the origin of the paper nautilus, a delicate species of octopus known as the argonaut. Because the females lived inside thin, spiral shells but were never seen attached to them like other mollusks, many scientists believed they were like hermit crabs, scavenging the discarded homes of other creatures. To solve the mystery, Jeanne Villepreux-Power, a former dressmaker living in Sicily, realized she needed to observe the animals alive rather than as preserved specimens.