rats

As a result, some rats are being put to work to detect.

It is also more accurate— the rats are able to find more TB infections and, therefore, save more lives.

Rats are often associated with spreading disease rather than preventing it, but this long-tailed animal is highly sensitive.

Rats are often associated with spreading disease rather than preventing it, but this long-tailed animal is highly sensitive Inside a rat's nose are up to 1, 000 different types of olfactory receptors whereas humans only have 100 to 200 types.

This gives rats the ability to detect slight smells.

When the rats detect the smell, they stop and rub their legs to indicate a sample is infected.

Just like medical researchers use rats to test ideas for human medical treatments, botanists use plants that are relatively easy to grow in a lab or greenhouse setting to test their ideas for related species.

When lab rats are not allowed to sleep, they die within a month.

Across 18 trials each, the living rats were 52 percent more likely on average to set the social robot free than the asocial one.

During the experiment, the social robot rat followed the living rats around, played with the same toys, and opened caged doors to let trapped rats escape.

Next, the researchers trapped the robots in cages and gave the rats the opportunity to release them by pressing a lever.

Rats and other animals need to be highly at tuned to social signals from others so that can identify friends to cooperate with and enemies to avoid.

The finding shows how sensitive rats are to social cues, even when they come from basic robots.

The readiness of the rats to befriend the social robot was surprising given its minimal design.

The robots rats were quite minimalist, resembling a chunkier version of a computer mouse with wheels-to move around and colorful markings.

They housed eight adult rats with two types of robotic rat- one social and one asocial - for 5 our days.

This could lead to the rats better remembering having freed it earlier, and wanting the robot to return the favour when they get trapped, says Quinn.

This suggests that the rats perceived the social robot as a genuine social being.

To find out if this extends to non-living beings, Loleh Quinn at the University of California, San diego, and her colleagues tested whether rats can detect social signals form robotic rats.