"A liquid is traditionally defined as a material that adapts its shape
to fit a container. Yet under certain conditions, cats seem to fit this
definition. This somewhat paradoxical observation emerged on the web a
few years ago and joined the long list of internet memes involving our
feline friends. When I first saw this question it made me laugh, and
then think. I decided to reformulate it to illustrate some problems at
the heart of rheology, the study of the deformations and flows of
matter." Marc-Antoine Fardin's research on the rheology of cats won him
the 2017 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics. The goal of the organization that
awards these prizes is "to highlight scientific studies that first make
people laugh, then think." Read on for Fardin's response to the
question, "Are cats liquid?"
