High above the building in many parts of the world, a weather vane tells which way the wind blows. Usually above the arrow itself, the vane has a symbolic figure of some kind – and more often than not it is a cockerel. But whether the vane has a cockerel...

Despite the evidence of the cobwebs that accumulate in our cellars and gardens, relatively few of the world’s spiders regularly weave webs. Most of them regards it as too laborious and risky a means of trapping their food. Webs give weaving spiders a...