While the brain's ability to deal with abstract properties - including patterns of "same" and "different" - has been demonstrated in animals with advanced intelligence after extensive training, researchers now show that newly hatched ducklings can distinguish same and different, too, without any training at all. The ability to identify logical relationships between objects, retain this understanding, and apply it to novel objects is known as relational concept learning. To date, such learning - often mistakenly considered uniquely human - has only been demonstrated in a few animal species, and only after extensive reinforcement training.

People with a rare autoimmune disorder produce autoimmune antibodies that appear to be linked to a reduced occurrence of Type 1 diabetes, new research has found. The study, published in Cell, suggests these antibodies could limit immune-related diseases and may have therapeutic potential.

In an international study led by King's College London, samples were taken from 81 people with a rare autoimmune disorder, called autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 (APECED), who have defects in the autoimmune regulator gene. Defects in this gene mean it can no longer fulfil its role as a regulator that helps purge the body of autoreactive immune cells termed T cells that can react against the body's own proteins, mistaking them for a foreign invader.

The transition from hunter-gatherer to sedentary farming 10,000 years ago occurred in multiple neighbouring but genetically distinct populations according to research by an international team including UCL.

"It had been widely assumed that these first farmers were from a single, genetically homogeneous population. However, we've found that there were deep genetic differences in these early farming populations, indicating very distinct ancestries," said corresponding author Dr Garrett Hellenthal, UCL Genetics.

Athens, Ga. - An international team of ecologists has identified the bat species with the greatest potential to harbor filoviruses--a family that includes Ebola virus. Writing in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, they suggest that areas where many of these species overlap, notably in Southeast Asia, should be targeted for disease surveillance and virus discovery efforts.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Fathers play a surprisingly large role in their children's development, from language and cognitive growth in toddlerhood to social skills in fifth grade, according to new findings from Michigan State University scholars.

The research provides some of the most conclusive evidence to date of fathers' importance to children's outcomes and reinforces the idea that early childhood programs such as Head Start should focus on the whole family, including mother and father alike. The findings are published online in two academic journals, Early Childhood Research Quarterly and Infant and Child Development.

It is common knowledge that salt consists of the cation sodium and the anion chloride. However, the substance used to season food has been a cause of great concern to farmers for some time now: In times of climate change, more and more agricultural areas have to be irrigated. This inevitably leads to the increasing salinisation of soils, that is the accumulation of sodium and chloride ions.