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US researchers explain how cats lap liquids with elegance
Yahoo News ^
| 11/13/10
| AFP
Posted on 11/11/2010 9:52:36 PM PST by Jaded
WASHINGTON (AFP) US researchers on Thursday unveiled the secret of how cats lap water or milk with such elegance, a phenomenon that happens so fast it cannot be followed by human eyes.
Cats are among the many species that, unlike humans, cannot close their mouths and create suction.
With help from from high-speed video taken of a felines lapping liquid, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton University found that household cats and larger felines like tigers balance gravity and inertia as they imbibe liquids.
The research will appear in the November 12 issue of the journal Science.
Scientists already knew that when cats insert their tongue into a bowl of liquid, the top surface of the tongue touches the liquid first, then the tip curves like a letter J to form a sort of ladle.
This was first observed by an MIT engineer, who filmed a cat lapping liquid in 1940.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: cats; milk
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1
posted on
11/11/2010 9:52:40 PM PST
by
Jaded
To: Jaded
2
posted on
11/11/2010 9:56:54 PM PST
by
JoeProBono
(A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
To: Jaded
Wish those cats could teach my dog...Dippermouth.
3
posted on
11/11/2010 9:57:14 PM PST
by
norge
(The amiable dunce is back, wearing a skirt and high heels.)
To: Jaded
Your tax dollars at work.
4
posted on
11/11/2010 10:04:04 PM PST
by
Patrick1
(I'm a soldier of good fortune, I'm guarding the Yucatan.)
To: Jaded
How many thousands of tax dollars were spent on this meaningless study that gives us nothing in return that we care about? These so called researchers should be indited, convicted and incarcerated.
5
posted on
11/11/2010 10:07:51 PM PST
by
metalurgist
(I Want your country back? It'll take guns and rope. Marxists won't give up peaceably.)
To: Jaded
I just hope the NSF spent hundreds of millions verifying these claims.
6
posted on
11/11/2010 10:09:25 PM PST
by
Attention Surplus Disorder
(Contributing to a book about GD I doesn't give you the right to print half a trillion dollars.)
To: GOP Golfer
7
posted on
11/11/2010 10:10:51 PM PST
by
GOP Poet
(Obama is an OLYMPIC failure.)
To: Jaded
Federal money, no doubt. To find out what most cat owners could have told them for free.
8
posted on
11/11/2010 10:15:12 PM PST
by
pissant
(THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)
To: Jaded
9
posted on
11/11/2010 10:19:55 PM PST
by
allmost
To: Patrick1
I’m really sure that they had nothing better to do. And now one of the age old mysteries of the world is solved.
Sheesh!
10
posted on
11/11/2010 10:39:36 PM PST
by
Bullish
(Been to all 57 States.... Or is it 58?)
To: Jaded
“Cats are among the many species that, unlike humans, cannot close their mouths and create suction.”
Obviously they didn't interview my cat Fat Boy.
11
posted on
11/11/2010 10:40:32 PM PST
by
BigCinBigD
(Northern flags in South winds flutter...)
To: Jaded
12
posted on
11/11/2010 10:41:23 PM PST
by
smokingfrog
(Because you don't live near a bakery doesn't mean you have to go without cheesecake.)
To: Cowboy Bob
13
posted on
11/11/2010 11:01:45 PM PST
by
Cowboy Bob
(Obama has demonstrated to the world the failure of Affirmative Action)
To: smokingfrog
That is why they yowl like that when they fool around. “sandpaper tongues”
14
posted on
11/11/2010 11:29:18 PM PST
by
mylife
(The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
To: smokingfrog
15
posted on
11/12/2010 1:18:05 AM PST
by
UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide
(REPEAL WASHINGTON! -- Islam Delenda Est! -- I Want Constantinople Back. -- Rumble thee forth.)
My cat won’t drink out of her own bowl. She prefers the toilet bowel or the pond.
Elegance my behind.
16
posted on
11/12/2010 1:24:06 AM PST
by
bonfire
(ou)
To: metalurgist
Although the work on cat drinking was done for professional pleasure - it wasn’t funded by a grant, and the only expense was high-quality video cameras - the researchers said there could be useful implications gleaned from their “fundamental” research.
17
posted on
11/12/2010 2:34:08 AM PST
by
smokingfrog
(Because you don't live near a bakery doesn't mean you have to go without cheesecake.)
To: UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide
18
posted on
11/12/2010 2:39:59 AM PST
by
smokingfrog
(Because you don't live near a bakery doesn't mean you have to go without cheesecake.)
To: Jaded
How cats drink is good to know and all, but shouldn’t the poindexters at MIT be working on my flying car? Where’s my flying car? I want my flying car. A cure for cancer would be okay too.
19
posted on
11/12/2010 3:51:18 AM PST
by
762X51
To: Jaded
a phenomenon that happens so fast it cannot be followed by human eyes.
Really? Ive been watching it for years. Guess those MIT geniuses have slow eyes.
20
posted on
11/12/2010 4:11:55 AM PST
by
R. Scott
(Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink)
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