Scientists at Israel's Ben-Gurion University trained goldfish to drive a "fish-operated vehicle" or FOV. According to scmp.com: "Each fish was put into the FOV – equipped with a fish tank –at different locations in a room and tasked with a goal to drive to a visual target. If they steered to the target, they were rewarded with a fish pellet. To the scientists' amazement, the goldfish successfully reached the target after a few days of training, no matter what position they started in or if they were interrupted by hitting a wall or by false targets."
Irresistible combo
A dog caught on a tidal sandbar was led to safety by a sausage hung from a drone. Millie disappeared after slipping her lead in Havant, Hampshire, and, after frantic public appeals, was spotted on the mudflats, in danger of being engulfed by the tide. She resisted efforts to encourage her to a safer spot until a drone pilot suggested attaching food to one of the unmanned aerial vehicles that had been used to track the dog.
Op shop score
You're never truly alone
A reader writes: "The house we used to own many years ago had a toilet which had two doors, one on each side - one into bathroom and the other to the laundry, which opened onto the back porch and garden. One glorious morning as I sat on the toilet, with doors wide open, basking in the morning sunshine ... I was aware of a person standing on the porch (reading the meter)! I froze, as I could not reach the door handles without standing up. As the man left, this voice said: 'Morning!' I don't know who was more embarrassed. I can still remember that mortified feeling."