Karl von Frisch won the Nobel Prize in 1973 for his pioneering work in the field of animal physiology and behavior. Frisch was a leading researcher in the study of insect behavior, and his studies proved that fish have acute hearing and that bees communicate effectively through a ritual dance. Frisch's discoveries and subsequent Nobel Prize were also significant because this was the first major acknowledgement of advances made in the study of ethology.

Frisch was born in Vienna in 1886 into a family dedicated to science. His father, Anton Ritter von Frisch, was a physician, and his mother, Marie Exner, came from a long line of distinguished scientists and scholars. From his earliest years, Frisch was exposed to the natural world, in large part due to a country house that his family retreated to every summer. There, the young Frisch spent his time collecting various species of animals. "Even...