Ms. Renkl, a contributing Opinion writer, reports from Nashville on flora, fauna, politics and culture in the American South. I was sure our window spider was long gone. This year the first hard ...

Japan-based biochemist Ali Malay has long questioned traditional theories about how spiders make their silk. “The prevailing hypotheses seemed like magic, because, according to it, you suddenly have ...

Peter Parker, an academically gifted but socially inept high school student, fights crime as Spider-Man, a member of The Avengers.