Parasites: from pests to puppeteers

We are all told the same story as children: that we grew from a single cell into a human being. We learn that all of our trillions of cells developed from the first union of egg and sperm, and that we

Clouds of noxious gas, stink bombs and purple smokescreens may sound like schoolboy pranks, but the animal world is just as capable of executing arresting chemical warfare, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee

In this new series, I’ll explore just how clever plants are, the complex ways in which they respond to the environment around them, the adaptations they make and the survival strategies they employ. I

Organic gardening helps predators such as ladybirds, which ...

John Blair Killing the Dead Vampire epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World 536pp. Princeton University Press. £30 (US $35). A dead body, as anyone who has sat with one will know, is an unsettling

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