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

Amazing answers to your curious questions

From her Yorkshire smallholding, Sally Coulthard marvels at the superpowers of crepuscular creatures that emerge in the magical half-light of dawn and dusk

W hen a peacock mantis shrimp strikes, it generates the heat of a star. The crustacean retracts a spring-loaded mouthpart known as a dactyl club and puts it on a latch, like a cowboy cocking the hamme

In 1977, the year the movie Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope was released, marine geologists laid eyes on a deep-sea hydrothermal vent for the first time. They were diving inside the submersible, kn