Elephants mourn their dead even if they did not have a close bond and continue to take an interest long after their bodies start to decay, a new study finds. Experts from the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research looked at 32 wild elephant carcasses from 12 different sources across Africa. They monitored the way in which the animals interacted with the carcasses and found that, in all cases, they would touch and examine the remains. They were also seen vocalising and attempting to lift or pull fallen elephants that had just died, according to researchers. New research has shown they mourn their dead even if they don't know them well (stock image) The idea that elephants have a'unique relationship' with the dead has been touted for a number of years, but this new study is the first to examine it in detail.

Apple has a vision of a future in which the disembodied voice of Siri is your constant companion. It goes something like this: You arrive home at the end of a long day and plop down on the couch. A beer in one hand, your phone in the other, you say, "Siri, open Netflix and play The IT Crowd." Midway through the program, you feel a draft. Siri politely tells you the temperature, and asks if you'd like it raised.

Chickens don't have a reputation for being the brightest group in the animal kingdom, but a new study has found we may have dramatically underestimated their brainpower. Researchers found that chickens have distinct personalities, numerical abilities and show self-awareness, among other traits. Dr Lori Marino, a lecturer in Neuroscience at Emory University and the author of the review, said: 'They (chickens) are perceived as lacking most of the psychological characteristics we recognize in other intelligent animals and are typically thought of as possessing a low level of intelligence compared with other animals.' According to Dr. Marino, 'chickens are behaviourally sophisticated, discriminating among individuals, exhibiting Machiavellian-like social interactions, and learning socially in complex ways that are similar to humans.' In a 2005 study, researchers found that domestic chickens are capable of self-control.

The Prom is a game where the player manages the social life of a group of high school students and creates the situations from which dramatic, thought provoking or at least funny stories can unfold. The setting of The Prom involves a group of alternative high school kids (e.g. Emos, Goths, Geeks, etc.) and their dramatic lives as they prepare for the upcoming school prom. Through creating friendships, making people become enemies, controlling who gets to be in the "in" crowd and much more, the player can shape the social world of the characters. Each character has a distinct personality represented by interests (e.g. what bands they like), needs (e.g. a character may need to demonstrate a certain degree of dominance over others), traits (e.g. being a particularly jealous person), social networks (e.g. to what degree a characters like, are attracted to or respect one another) and social status (e.g. who is dating who).The social artificial intelligence system Comme il Faut ( CiF ) drives this gameplay experience by simulating per character needs and traits, social statuses, social networks, social history and most importantly to gameplay, the outcomes and effects of social games. CiF is a playable computational model of social interactions designed specifically to allow autonomous characters to play social games. By giving player controls to navigate a social, rather than physical, space, The Prom is being created to demonstrate how CiF and social games can create a practically limitless numbers of possibly compelling stories and gameplay.