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

ENGINEERING THE END OF MEDIEVAL WARFARE

I magine you’re in Nebraska, standing on North America’s Great Plains, where the broad Platte and Missouri rivers join on their way to the mighty Mississippi. It’s 1804, and in the blistering 36°C hea

AL MUTHANNA GOVERNORATE, IRAQ 27-28 FEBRUARY 1991

From ice cream to underwear and explosives, plants are remarkably integral to much of the manmade world, as a new book reveals. Harry Pearson investigates

It sounds like the stuff of conspiracy theories or a disaster movie: a series of volcanic eruptions kicks off a deadly pandemic. But new research suggests that such an event may indeed have happened.