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For most people, the words ‘hermit crab’ likely bring to mind shy, near-motionless crustaceans sitting in a cage in the corner of someone’s bedroom. In their natural habitats, however, hermit crabs are clever, highly social creatures capable of living more than 20 years. This excerpt from the award-winning BBC One nature documentary series Life follows a group of hermit crabs on a small Caribbean island off the coast of Belize. Faced with either finding new shells or baking to death under the intense heat of the sun, the group takes part in a mutually beneficial, oceanside housing swap that truly needs to be seen to be believed.
Director: John Brown
Producers: Ian Gray, Michael Gunton
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Evolution
The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo
6 minutes
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Biology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
3 minutes
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Engineering
From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation
23 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes
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Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
8 minutes
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Astronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
5 minutes
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Knowledge
Why it takes more than a lifetime to truly understand a single meadow
11 minutes
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Physics
Groundbreaking visualisations show how the world of the nucleus gives rise to our own
10 minutes
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Earth science and climate
There’s a ‘climate bomb’ ticking beneath the Arctic ice. How can we prepare?
8 minutes