Author: Alex Dittrich, Senior Lecturer in Zoology, Nottingham Trent University

Incy wincy hasn't got time for witchcraft. thatmacroguy/Shutterstock If you’re scared of spiders, Halloween certainly doesn’t help. People decorate their homes with monstrous-looking fake cobwebs and horror movies depict giant spiders hunting humans or creeping around spooky abandoned houses. Spiders’ long association with witches can also make their presence seem a little ominous. In reality […]

Ruslan Suseynov/Shutterstock In Antarctica’s freezing depths, tiny creatures have mastered survival tactics that could unlock secrets to extreme cold resistance, with implications for science and medicine. Some of the most intense battles against the environment are waged by the smallest of creatures. When it’s cold, we, as warm-blooded (endothermic), animals simply put on a coat. […]

We’ve all found ourselves trying to avoid the swarms of midges that are so common in late summer. But as you try to avoid them, what you may not know is that they are equally keen to avoid each other. It’s strange behaviour for creatures that typically move around together. But physicist Andrew Reynolds from […]