Why do cats often leave food unfinished? Many cat owners have experienced this puzzling behavior. Domestic cats are well known for eating multiple small meals throughout the day, a pattern thought to reflect their evolutionary origin from the African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica), a solitary hunter that repeatedly captures small prey. It has also often been assumed that cats leave food unfinished simply because they have a small appetite or a capricious nature. However, the mechanism underlying this characteristic feeding pattern has remained unclear. A research group led by Professor Masao Miyazaki at Iwate University, Japan, has now shown that domestic cats may stop eating not only because they are full, but also because smell plays an important role in regulating feeding motivation. The study suggests that feeding behavior in cats is dynamically influenced by olfactory habituation and dishabituation. The study was published in Physiology & Behavior.

A 4‑month‑old male infant who presented with left cryptorchidism and was ultimately diagnosed with persistent Müllerian duct syndrome (PMDS) with transverse testicular ectopia. Two novel mutations in the AMHR2 gene were identified.

Meteor impacts may have helped spark life on Earth, creating hot, chemical-rich environments where the first living cells could take shape, according to research integrated by a recent Rutgers University graduate.

“No one knows, from a scientific perspective, how life could have been formed from an early Earth that had no life,” said Shea Cinquemani, who earned her bachelor’s degree in marine biology and fisheries management from the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in May 2025. “How does something come from nothing?” Cinquemani is the lead author of a scientific review, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, examining where life may have first formed on Earth. The paper focuses on hydrothermal vents, places where hot, mineral-rich water flows through rock and emerges into surrounding water, creating the chemical conditions and energy gradients needed for complex reactions.

The discovery of changes to a 200-million-year-old gene in a mutant clownfish with a unique pattern provides a central clue to the mystery of how nature can create sharply defined boundaries: clear communication. This new research upends our understanding of the mathematical rules that pigmentation cells follow, and suggests a common mechanism shared across species.