The science of monsters

On being told that they had been bitten by a venomous snake, most eight-year-olds would panic. Not Nicholas Jubber; he was not terrified but disappointed by a diagnosis that contradicted his own. Nich

During late August 2025, the Hunterian Museum of Zoology in Glasgow hosted Snake Summer, an event covering snakes in science, folklore and fantasy organised by Dr Will Tattersdill of the University of

Piecing together the inspirations and evolution of Mary Shelley’s famous monster

Britain is a country mercifully bereft of threatening fauna–or so you might believe. John Lewis-Stempel provides a miscellany of our otherwise benign land’s more fearsome critters

Tennyson’s embrace of science and catastrophe theory

Before I realise what’s happening, the lid is off – and James Maclaine is pulling out a fistful of deep-sea anglerfish. I hadn’t been expecting him to plonk his bare hand inside the jar. I peer more c