They Trained Goldfish to Drive a Car
Back in 2014, a tech company rigged up a car for a goldfish to drive. That was to show off the technology, not to benefit the goldfish. But now, researchers at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel, have trained six goldfish to use such a vehicle to go in a direction that will reward them with food.
The "fish operated vehicle" is a water tank on wheels. Underwater cameras attached to a computer analyzed the fish's movements and relayed those movements to the vehicle, so that the car went in the direction the fish was swimming.
The results of this experiment are quite significant. The fish learned to aim the car at a target and drive to it from different starting points in the room. They also improved their performance over time, from about a half-hour to some fish reaching their target in less than a minute! Scientists say this shows that marine animals can transfer their navigational skills from the water to land-based geography. Read more about the findings at The Times of Israel. -via Strange Company