A team at Yamaguchi University in Japan has identified a mechanical property of the feline spine that helps explain how cats can rotate midair to land on their feet. Their peer-reviewed study, ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. (Linas Toleikis/iStock/Getty Images Plus) For more than a century, scientists have been trying to figure out how a falling cat ...

When falling cats turn themselves the right way up before they hit the ground, they have a secret trick: a region of their spine that is exceptional at twisting. “We compared the flexibility of the ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

In 1894, French physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey tried to resolve a particularly vexing question in science: How do cats always seem to land on their feet when they fall? Using the era’s rudimentary ...

Falling cats in the study also seemed to show a marked preference for turning to the right.