Welcome to another entry in our column, The Week's Weirdest World News. The world, you might have noticed, is a very strange place — so every seven days, we'll be rounding up the most bizarre things that have happened across the globe, purely for your enjoyment.

From a walking mushroom to food dye that turns mice see-through, these stories are sure to inspire wonder — or, at the very least, befuddlement — at the weird ol' world around us.

Oyster mushroom walks with robot body

Scientists have developed a robot that is controlled by a mushroom.

The biohybrid robot, created by an interdisciplinary team from Cornell University in the US and Florence University in Italy, uses electric impulses from the mycelium of a King oyster mushroom to move around and react to its environment.

Mycelium, the root-like structure of a fungus, form networks underground that allow nutrients to be transported to and from plants.

The system developed by the researchers processes the mycelium's innate electric signals, identifies its rhythmic spikes, then converts that information into a digital control signal that allows the spider-like robot to crawl and even respond to ultraviolet light.

"By growing mycelium into the electronics of a robot, we were able to allow the biohybrid machine to sense and respond to the environment," Rob Shepherd, the paper's senior author, said.

"The potential for future robots could be to sense soil chemistry in row crops and decide when to add more fertilizer, for example, perhaps mitigating downstream effects of agriculture like harmful algal blooms."

Dogs can remember the names of toys they haven't seen for years

^{[Image credit: Mathew Coulton]}

Studies have long suggested that dogs have the ability to learn what their toys are called, but new research has found that some pups are better with names than we humans previously thought.

According to researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, particularly clever dogs — referred to as "gifted word learners" in the study — can remember the names of their toys even when they haven't seen them for two years.

In an earlier study, the talented dogs were taught the names of several toys, which were then put away for two years. In the new study, each dog was reintroduced to their toys, before they were moved to another room among other toys in the pet's home. Then, the dogs were asked to collect their "test" toys one by one.

On average, the dogs picked the correct toy 44 percent of the time, but some dogs had a success rate of up to 60 percent.

Not only do the results show that these dogs stored object names in their long-term memory, Shany Dror, the study's first author, said, but they could also help us to understand the evolution of human language.

"Why is language uniquely human? To understand that, we need to understand what parts of language are available in other animals and which parts are not," she told the Guardian.

Common food coloring turns mice transparent

It sounds like science fiction, but researchers have discovered a way to turn the skin of a mouse transparent.

It's not some mysterious compound that can turn skin see-through, either — it's a common yellow food dye found in products like Mountain Dew and Doritos.

Scientists at Stanford University rubbed a solution of water and the dye, known as tartrazine or Yellow 5, onto the skin of mice, and found that it allowed them to see the animals' internal organs and blood vessels. The effect was reversed almost immediately by rinsing the skin with water.

"It's a stunning result," Guosong Hong, assistant professor of materials science and engineering and senior author on the paper, told Stanford Report.

Though the discovery could revolutionize medicine and healthcare, the way it works is surprisingly simple: tartrazine is a light-absorbing molecule, meaning it increases the transmission of light through the skin by reducing the tissue's ability to scatter light.

"This could have an impact on health care and prevent people from undergoing invasive kinds of testing," said Hong. "If we could just look at what's going on under the skin instead of cutting into it, or using radiation to get a less than clear look, we could change the way we see the human body."

'Russian spy' whale found dead, animal rights groups suspect foul play

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Hvaldimir, a famous whale believed to have once been a Russian spy, was found dead in Norwegian waters on Saturday, and animal rights organizations claim he did not die of natural causes.

The beluga whale rose to fame back in 2019, when marine biologists in Norway found him wearing a camera harness that read "Equipment St. Petersburg." The discovery, along with Hvaldimir's keen interest in humans, led many to speculate that he had been trained as a spy by the Russian navy, before escaping captivity.

Though the average lifespan for a beluga whale is between 40 and 60 years, Hvaldimir was believed to be no older than 20 when he died — and animal rights groups say he was killed by gunfire.

"He had multiple bullet wounds around his body," Regina Crosby Haug, the head of One Whale, an organization founded to track and protect Hvaldimir, told AFP.

Siri Martinsen, the director of animal rights group Noah, also said: "The injuries on the whale are alarming and of a nature that cannot rule out a criminal act — it is shocking."

Both organizations have filed a complaint asking Norwegian police to open a criminal investigation.

The beloved whale's body was transported to a branch of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute for autopsy on Monday, and a report is expected "within three weeks."

Still hungry for more weird news? Check out last week's roundup.

[Image credit: ABC News (Australia)]