It turns out that ants are capable of making career moves.

Computer tracking of ants shows that colonies have three main occupations: nursing the queen, cleaning, and foraging for food. Younger ants typically stay near the queen, but as they get older, they make the transition to foraging. This transition with regards to age was an exciting discovery, giving more insight into ant behavior.
 
Source: http://www.nature.com/news/tracking-whole-colonies-shows-ants-make-career-moves-1.12833 ...

Dolphins are regarded as the second smartest animal alive, and are only outwitted by humans. Compared to other animals their size, dolphin brains are five times larger. Dolphins have been shown to be self-aware, and are capable of a wide range of emotions.

Listeria bacteria has been enlisted by researchers to selectively infect metastatic pancreatic cancer cells and deliver radioisotopes into them. The experimental treatment dramatically decreased the number of metastases (cancers that have spread to other parts of the body) in a mouse model of highly aggressive pancreatic cancer without harming healthy tissue. Mice livers are shown above. The saline control liver on the left presents a large number of metastases compared to the liver on the right which was subject to the radioactive Listeria treatment. ...

A Judean date palm plant was planted in 2005 using seeds that were hidden away for 2000 years. While other species of date palms thrive around the world, this particular species was thought to be extinct for 1800 years.

Date palms are either male or female, and this one, nicknamed Methuselah, is a male, so it will not produce fruit. However, the plant is alive and well, and is the oldest known seed to successfully germinate.

The surinam toad reproduces in a way that is not for the faint of heart. The female expels dozens of eggs, which the male fertilizes and places on her back, where they become engrained into the flesh. When it comes time to hatch, like so many pimples, the eggs rupture and the babies emerge.

How this bicycle got up in the tree has been the subject of plenty of local legend around Washington’s Vashon Island. The real story involves a boy in the 1950s who left his bike in the woods while playing with friends, because he didn’t like it. The bike was placed about two meters high in the tree, which eventually grew around it.

In the early 1900s, Swedish tree sculptor Axel Erlandson planted “The Basket Tree.” Actually, this is a bit of a misnomer, as it is a collection of six different Sycamore trees that have been grafted together. In the late 1940s, Erlandson opened a roadside oddity attraction containing 20 to 30 tree sculptures. Today, they have been transplanted and are on display at Gilroy Gardens amusement park in California.

Throughout conservations on a daily basis, I often get asked ‘Will there ever be a cure for…?’ or ‘Do you think there will ever be…?’ and those questions are quite a stumbling block. Having discussed various aspects of current biochemical and biotechnical research of late I suppose it has prompted me to ask a similar question myself. The question being, how far can biotechnology take us? How much can we cure, eradicate or produce through further research in the biosciences? It’s a stimulating question and one that is impossible to answer definitively. We never know what exactly lies around the corner, but we can extrapolate on from current trends and ideas. Obviously, the areas of gene therapy, synthetic biology and pharmacoge ...