Life on the Edge

The way that animals move influences the distances that they travel and the barriers that they can cross. Ultimately, it determines the geographical space that species occupy at any given time, and how quickly this space can change. I explore spider movement - using the power of wind and waves - and view the world as seen through a spider's eyes.

There’s a resource we rely on to grow our food, build our communities, alleviate flooding and drought, and support entire ecosystems, but we’ve lost or degraded nearly half of it in the last 150 years. It’s soil, and despite its importance, we’re only just starting to fully appreciate what lies beneath the surface. For those who are willing to get their hands dirty, you can help us explore the secrets of soil, and the organisms and interactions which make it the amazing resource it is.

Most snail shells coil clockwise, but last year, Angus acquired an ultra-rare left-coiling garden snail who came to be known as ‘Jeremy’. The problem for Jeremy? Well, rare ‘lefties' are unable to mate with normal right coiling snails, because their genitals are on the wrong side of their head. They're destined to live a life unrequited. Angus will tell the story of the ‘citizen science’ campaign to find a mate for Jeremy, how he inadvertently created a ‘shellebrity snail’, and what the study of snail shell coiling can tell us about our own bodies (but not our genitals).