Miriam Rothschild's best-known work has been in the fields of entomology and parasitology, and she is considered the world's foremost authority on fleas. Although she has made numerous scientific contributions in such fields as marine biology, chemistry, horticulture, and zoology, her scientific background is unorthodox. Rothschild, though widely respected for her work and extensive knowledge of fleas, was never formally educated in these fields. In fact, her scientific endeavors are wholly a result of a natural curiosity about the physical world and the encouraging atmosphere of learning she grew up in.

Miriam Louisa Rothschild was born into the famed Rothschild banking family on August 5, 1908, at Ashton Wold, her parents' estate near Peterborough, England. The oldest of four children of Nathaniel Charles and Rozsika von Wertheimstein Rothschild, her own grandfather was the first Baron Rothschild. Although Nathaniel Charles Rothschild, her father, was a banker by profession, he was a...