Cool cats in fake squares and hands that tell chemical stories

Abstract

Cat-aloging feline behavior Cats love squares. Any cat lover can verify the feline phenomenon of sitting in square things, whether they’re boxes (thank you, Schrödinger), suitcases, or even square shapes made of tape. Gabriella Smith knows this kitty-sitting behavior well: the animal-behavior scientist says research suggests that cats do this because they like the pressure provided by an enclosed space, or as ambush hunters, they like hiding in small spaces before a predatory pounce. But that doesn’t quite explain cats’ tendency to plop themselves inside taped squares on the floor. While Smith was a master’s degree student at Hunter College, she attended a lecture about how dogs perceive illusions, and she wondered how cats might perceive illusions as well. To test the idea, she turned to something called a Kanizsa square, a series of Pac-Man-like circles that, when lined up properly, create the illusion of a square between them. Taking