At-home experiments shed light on cats’ liquid behavior

Cats may seem solid, but they’re actually somewhat liquid — at least according to one 2017 theoretical physics paper inspired by videos of cats squeezing under doors, into tight vases and down narrow crevices. Now, one researcher has taken this idea a step further, physically testing dozens of cats to see when they act more like liquids or solids.

Cats fluidly move through tall and narrow nooks but hesitate when they approach uncomfortably short holes, biologist Péter Pongrácz reports September 17 in iScience. The finding suggests that cats are aware of their own body sizes and may form mental images of themselves.

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