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We present results from a new method of exploring the distant Universe. We use 3-D spectroscopy to sample a large cosmological volume at a time when the Universe was less than 3 billion years old to investigate the evolution of star-formation activity. Within this study we also discovered a high redshift type- II quasar which would not have been identified with imaging studies alone. This highlights the crucial role that integral-field spectroscopy may play in surveying the distant Universe in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We summarise recent results from two programmes of integral field spectroscopy (IFS) on galaxy emission line haloes. Firstly, we present SAURON IFS of the 100 kpc-scale diffuse Lyα-emitting blobs in the SSA22 protocluster at z=3.09 and show how IFS helped uncover evidence for a galaxy-wide superwind outflow. Secondly, we present VIMOS observations of Hα emission in the cores of z ∼ 0.1 cooling flow clusters and illustrate how IFS is an essential tool for understanding these complex regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]