From the "weird, odd and quirky stories" section of

the Scotsman:

RATS are being trained to sniff out the buried victims of earthquakes and bomb blasts and could be sent to search for survivors in the same way as dogs.

The project, funded by Pentagon research arm DARPA, uses rats trained "to find human smells irresistible". These rats, wearing special radio backpacks linked directly to their brains, would transmit their brain patterns and whereabouts to searchers on the surface. Pretty neat. (Via Slashdot)