Embed from Getty Images Rachael Funnell writes This Is The Best Way to Get A Cat’s Attention According to Science: With the help of 18 domestic cats (8 females, 10 males) with a job history of at least three years in a cat café, experimenters tried four different approaches to getting a cat’s attention:…

Embed from Getty Images Michelle Starr writes Scientists Confirm You Can Communicate With Your Cat by Blinking Very Slowly: In a study published in 2020, scientists observed cat-human interactions, and were able to confirm that this act of blinking slowly makes cats – both familiar and unfamiliar animals – approach and be receptive to humans. ….…

Ashleigh Papp, over at Scientific American, reports How AI Facial Recognition Is Helping Conserve Pumas: INTRO: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Ashleigh Papp. Papp: Mountain lions are now posing for their close ups. Researchers based in the greater Yellowstone National Park area have figured out a new way to identify these cats by using…

But a new study, published Tuesday in the journal iScience, suggests that the reaction to catnip and silver vine might be explained by the bugrepellent effect of iridoids, the chemicals in the plants that induce the high. Researchers, led by Masao Miyazaki, an animal behavior scientist at Iwate University in Japan, found that the amount…

Helen Czerski writes Behind the Spooky Eyes of Cats (‘Like scarier nighttime predators, cats have slit pupils that help them to judge distance and ambush their prey’): Halloween is approaching, and a whiff of ghoulish menace is squatting casually in the darkness of London’s evenings. Ghostly figures, silhouettes of witches and jagged glowing teeth loom…