A pufferfish: ‘probably nature’s greatest artist’ | Helen Sullivan

The word ‘probably’ will haunt this fish for the rest of its days – a deflating description for a cute, toxic creaturePufferfish are cute, and most pufferfish are toxic. Like people, they spend their weeks moving between states of puffed up and deflated. Or, really, three states: normal, puffed up and then the hangover after the puffing up. Ironically, the pufferfish toxin, called tetrodotoxin, is deadly because it stops a person’s diaphragm from moving – in other w