The Secret Life of Ants, Shot by Andrey Pavlov

We’ve seen insects used as art protagonists before. Mike Libby turns them into steampunk hybrids, and Ubyka creates armed insect cyborgs, but I haven’t seen anything like what Andrey Pavlov does with ants.

Andrey Pavlov spent a lot of time studying ants, and he learned that they all follow a very specific path when they’re working. So all he has to do is find them, put the props right on their trail, set up some flash backgrouns and light reflectors, and just stand on the sidelines photographing the ants.

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The photo series created by this talented Russian photographer is called “Ant Stories”. And what beautiful stories they are… Have you ever seen something this extraordinary?

A spider in Brazil can cause erections that lasts for hours

The Brazilian wandering spiders appeared in Guinness World Records 2012 as the world's most venomous spider. Its venom can cause priapism in humans. Priapism is a potentially painful medical condition, in which the erect penis or clitoris does not return to its flaccid state, despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation, within four hours. A component of the venom (Tx2-6) is being studied for use in erectile dysfunction treatments.

The eight-legged creature - also known as the armed spider, banana spider or Phoneutria nigriventer - is native to South and Central America.

Ball Cutter Fish Kills Fishermen by Biting off Their Testicles

Man-eating predators have always been part of legend and folk-lore. But here we have news of a real-life monster, interested in only one part of the human anatomy – the testicles.

The monster in question is in fact a 40lb fish called Pacu, found in the waters of Papua New Guinea. The Pacu are notorious for having eaten up the testicles of swimmers and anglers caught unawares, leaving them to bleed to death. This has led to the creatures being nicknamed ‘Ball Cutter’ fish. Initially, the villagers could only describe the monster-fish as something mysterious, like a ‘human in the water’. They finally got to see the predator up-close when a Pacu fish was recently caught by Jeremy Wade, a 53-year old British Fisherman, as a part of his TV series called River Monsters. The muscular fish was hard to catch, but Wade managed to track it down, reel it into his boat and wrestle it into submition. When he opened its jaws up with his hands, the teeth of the Pacu were found to be quite similar to human ones.

The Pacu fish are actually native to the Amazon, and were introduced to Papua New Guinea only about 15 years ago. Traditionally vegetarian, the fish used their molar-like sharp teeth to crack open nuts (no pun intended) and seeds. When veggie food wasn’t available in their new surroundings, they had to resort to eating meat. I suppose this is when they discovered a particular liking towards the meat of human testicles.

Meet Ralph, the giant Schnauzer who helps children to walk and smile

Ralf has gained a reputation as something of a miracle worker since joining Royal Children's Hospital, in Melbourne, Australia. The selfless pooch walks the wards and looks in on his young patients every Monday. He even sits with some during gruelling chemotherapy therapy sessions.

Ralf got two-year-old Claire Couwenberg to walk for the first time in the five days since her surgery to remove a cancerous kidney. And he brought a smile to 15-month-old Zeke Harrison, who has a rare genetic disorder where his body is unable to break down protein and too much can kill him.

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Ralf is one of a handful of dogs to visit the RCH each week in a program that has been boosted so more pooches are popping in on more little patients.

Sexually Rejected Alcohol-Drinking Flies

A new study at the University of California, San Francisco found that male fruit flies that had been rejected drank, on average, four times more than those that had successfully mated. In the experiment, 24 male fruit flies were put in one of two situations — either in a vial with female fruit flies ready to mate or in one with female fruit flies who already had. Then, after four days, they were given the opportunity to choose between plain food and food that had been spiked with alcohol.

Though researchers expected all of the flies to prefer alcohol-laced food, they found that the males who had successfully mated passed on the boozy food. The rejected males, however, displayed a clear preference for it. On average, the rejected male flies "drank" four times more alcohol than those that had mated.

HeroRats can sniff out landmines and detect tuberculosis bacteria

There are giant rats, dubbed HeroRats, that sniff out landmines in Africa and can detect tuberculosis bacteria.

Dr. Alan D. Poling, WMU professor of psychology, is part of a team of specialists working with the non-governmental organization APOPO, which has had considerable success using large African pouched rats to sniff out landmines and tuberculosis bacteria.

Poling says the rodents, dubbed HeroRats, have an acute sense of smell and do well at detecting explosive devices and the live TB bacterium. They're also cheaper to train and maintain than dogs, making them a valuable alternative for landmine detection in developing countries.

Jellyfish Lake where you can swim with jellyfish

Jellyfish Lake is the only place in the world where you can safely swim amongst millions of jellyfish because the sometimes deadly creatures have lost their sting.

The lake, based on the Pacific island of Palau, was once connected to the Pacific Ocean but when the sea level dropped jellyfish became isolated in the algae rich lake. With no risk of being eaten by predators the jellyfish population thrived and there is now estimated to be up to eight million jellyfish living in the lake. Over time their stings weakened and these amazing images show tourists can now swim alongside the jellyfish without fear of being stung.