E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSEngineers have used high-speed videos and mechanical gizmos to figure out the mechanics of a cat's drinking style, confirming what most pet owners know already: Cats are way different from dogs.
Dogs drink by dipping their tongues into liquids like ladles. A little pool of water is brought into the mouth every time Fido takes a gulp from the toilet bowl. Cats, in contrast, touch only the curled-back tip of the tongue onto the surface of the liquid. When the tongue is drawn back up into the cat's mouth, a thin column of the liquid is drawn up as well. Then the cat closes its mouth around that column.
The cat-lapping study was published today on the journal Science's website.
Roman Stocker, an engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in fluid dynamics, admitted in a Science video interview that the research was "somewhat unusual."
M. Pilotto, R. Stocker, P. Reis
How do cats lap? Cutta Cutta shows how it's done.
"What prompted this study of cats was in fact my cat," he said. "I was watching him one morning, three years ago over breakfast, as he was lapping his water. It occurred to me that there was an exciting biomechanics problem hidden behind the commonplace and apparently simple action of lapping."
Researchers spent hours at Stocker's house, waiting for the cat (named Cutta Cutta) to take a drink while the high-speed video camera was rolling. They also analyzed scores of videos of drinking cats -- ranging from recordings of big cats at Zoo New England to cute videos they found on YouTube.
They found that domestic cats average about four laps per second, with each lap bringing in about 0.1 milliliters of liquid. In contrast, tigers, lions and jaguars lap at less than half the rate. In each scenario, the lapping action strikes a balance between the inertia that makes the liquid rise into the cat's mouth ... and the gravity that makes the liquid fall.
"What is remarkable is that cats seem to know about this balance, and lap with a frequency that maximizes this volume ingested," said MIT's Pedro Reis, another co-author of the paper.
To tease out the full story behind a cat's lap, the researchers basically used an artificial cat tongue -- a little glass disk attached to the end of a plunger that dipped down onto the surface of a liquid at an adjustable rate. This gave the scientists a way to quantify how gravity and inertia worked together ... without waiting for Cutta Cutta to decide he was thirsty.
This is the kind of research that sounds as if it came to a conclusion everybody already knows, but Stocker told me these are new discoveries. "I don't think anyone has explained it," he said, "certainly not the balance of forces behind it."
A lapping cat was one of the subjects covered in the Oscar-winning short subject titled "Quicker 'n a Wink," released back in 1940. MIT engineer Doc Edgerton recorded the cat's technique using a high-speed camera, but didn't delve into the detailed fluid mechanics behind it.
Stocker admitted that there's not an immediate practical application to the research, which was conducted with borrowed equipment and no outside funding. But he said the mechanics of a cat's tongue could be adapted for robotic devices that move water around using soft structures (like, say, an elephant's trunk). There might also be some evolutionary lessons to be learned from the differences between the drinking habits of cats and dogs.
The way dogs drink liquids is somewhat messier, Stocker noted. "Part of a cat's face is highly sensitive -- for example, the whiskers. There might be a desire on the part of the cat to keep those dry," Stocker speculated.
But when you get right down to it, the experiment was "purely curiosity-driven," Stocker said.
"Although people may not appreciate that, curiosity is often what motivates science," he said. And the nicest part is that in this experiment, curiosity did not kill the cat.
"The cat is still quite happy," Stocker told me over the telephone. "In fact, he's sitting right beside me now."
Update for 2 p.m. ET Nov. 12: Over at the Not Exactly Rocket Science weblog, Ed Yong goes into more detail about the experiment as well as feline drinking habits. He includes a link to "Quicker 'n a Wink" on YouTube -- a link that eluded me yesterday. You can see the cat-drinking footage at around the 4:40 mark in this clip:
More on cats and dogs:
- How science measures up cats and dogs
- In war of dogs vs. cats, the answer is clear
- Cat calls monkeys to their doom
- Cat vs. dog evolution
In addition to Stocker and Reis, the authors of "How Cats Lap: Water Uptake by Felis Catus" include Virginia Tech's Sunghwan Jung and Princeton's Jeffrey Aristoff.
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
The attached video describes inertia but actually shows surface tension. By controlling surface tension of water one can actually make water move uphill against gravity. This article doesn't address that factor of a fluid.
Actually, Stocker told me that surface tension is not a factor in this phenomenon ... which came as somewhat of a surprise to him. The reason why the tongue brings the fluid up is "adhesion of the fluid to the tongue," he said. "It's really the wettability that matters."
The finding that surface tension is not a factor also explains why the rate of lapping does not vary when liquids of various viscosities are involved. The action of drinking milk is the same as drinking water.
Stocker told me the big cats' lapping frequency is lower because the column of liquid is larger, due to the greater area involved in the tongue-fluid adhesion. "An object's inertia is due both to its velocity and its mass," he said. A bigger column can be brought up, thus the big cat takes more time to slurp up the liquid.
Alan,
How does the column hold together if not by surface tension?
This same study was done back in the forties. It was shown on Turner Cassic Movies six months ago in black and white as a short filler.
I also recall reading that there is a certain characteristic to the texture of the cat's tongue that aids in the adhesion of the liquid to the tongue. When a cat licks you, you can feel the roughness of the tongue. My understanding is that this roughness is caused by a texture that is similar to a fabric's nap. It feels rougher when the motion is towards the tip of the tongue than in the opposite direction. I am surprised that this was not mentioned in the research.
Are we forgetting the tongue of a cat is the one responsible for pulling up the liquid due to it's abrasive like surface? Surface tension is always present in water unless soap is introduced to break the membrane. A cat will try to lick water faster if the surface tension is not there and more likely to give up on attempting to drink.
i have had felines for a long time and yes i have watched them drink , so whats the problem . one big question i do have is WHO PAID FOR THIS STUDY ,talk about a waiste of money and time , if the gov. paid for this nowonder the gov. is broke.
If you read the article, author said that there was no "outside funding" and it was borrowed equipment. calm down.
"Not an immediate practical application to the research..." Really? Shocking!! I would have thought there had to be some earth-shattering revelation regarding science or perhaps philosophy in the lapping motion of a cat! My God... on the faculty at MIT... in engineering no less and this is the research being done. Bravo...
I remember this on a TV show in the 60's called You Asked For It. They showed a slo-mo closeup of the cat's tongue curling under while it was drinking. Now it's a study and worthy of a research grant? Where do I sign up?
Flower Boomer, as noted, there was no research grant for this one. Just go get a cat and a camera and go to town. Actually, you might want to conduct the research with dogs to get a fresh angle. ;-)
I love kitties
What's the news? I knew how cats drink years ago. It is all in the surface of the cat's tongue and what makes the surface so rough. When the cat sticks its tongue out. It curls the tip backwards exposing the surface to the water, and like a sponge through capillary action the cat's tongue soak up the water. And then as the cat pulls its tongue back into its mouth, the tongue rolls back squeezing out the water, like wringing out a sponge, and the cat swallows it. I knew that years ago and so did scientists, why is it suddenly such a big deal again?
Getting back to the part about the surface tension ... I think it's a technical distinction but an important one. Here's information about surface tension, which is a cohesive property of fluids:
http://physics.about.com/od/physicsexperiments/a/surfacetension.htm
... And here's a little bit about adhesion vs. cohesion:
http://www.uni.edu/~iowawet/H2OProperties.html#ad
In the case of the cat, liquid adheres to the tongue ... and the tongue is drawn up so rapidly that the inertia of the moving liquid overcomes the force of gravity long enough for the cat to close its mouth around the column. So the operating principle here is adhesion rather than surface tension.
My cat will only drink water from a running faucet. It has to be my hubby's sink in the master bathroom. She sticks her paw in the stream then licks it. After about 4 or 5 paw drinks she places her head sideways and drinks directly from the stream. I wonder if the same tongue process is in play or if a stream of water makes it different.
Interesting. It seems that a cat, in general, is the embodiment of many principles of physics.
How, for example, does a cat "calculate" exactly how much force is needed to land on a window sill with all four paws, leaving less than half an inch to spare? Somehow he neither over-jumps, nor under-jumps. Even with "new" objects, like a new piano or bookcase - it's always a perfect landing. I've watched my cat seem to "study" the distance, adjust his hindquarters, then jump and land perfectly.
Disclaimer: I've seen kittens get carried away in play and misjudge a distance, ledge, edge of the bed, etc, but rarely/never an adult cat.
I with you Harold L. So I guess they have Cancer, Aids, SIDS, Parkensons, Diabetes and all of those unimportant things cured and they need something to do, Right. S@#T!!!!!!! :-(
The SECRET of a Cat Slap is to remember to duck.
The cat's tongue has millions of hook like follicles that help grab the water. If they didn't have those, the lapping wouldn't work at all. I'm shocked that there was no mention of that. Everyone who has felt a cat's tongue know that it is different than other tongues.
If you were to shave off this hook like coating, the cat wouldn't be able to drink much at all (please don't run that experiment).
Since this is the primary reason that the water adheres to their tongues, and since it has been know for many decades, the article should have been titled "Scientists better understand the cat's lapping motion."
When I learned about the nature of the surface of a cat's tongue, that really was the secret revealed.
AmericansatWar - I'm pretty sure a cat isn't going to drink water with soap in it, and you probably wouldn't either.
In the old days, some of us got to have soap in our mouths for saying words that are now said routinely on regular (OTA) TV.
Of course now that would be child abuse, but it wasn't actually of any danger to the child's health.
As for the surface tension, clothing for example, will hold water whether it is soapy or not. That has to do with the shape of the fiber and the way it is woven. There is a very specific, hooklike surface on a cat's tongue that helps "grip" the water in one direction. Kinda like the skins you put on the bottom of cross country skis when you want to ski uphill.
Right starshine. It boggles the mind that engineers aren't out there curing diseases. And it's even worse that they don't come up with some sort of economic theory to make poverty a thing of the past.
Since neither medicine nor economics are in the purview of engineers, this is a ridiculous line of criticism. Engineers figure out and use the physical properties of all kinds of things to make, destroy, and utilize the inherent properties of whatever physical things come to hand. This does not allow them time to study medicine or economics, and to ask an engineer to cure cancer is rather like asking a piano tuner to catch identity thieves. Come on, people!
Soooo what exactly is this research going to lead to?
Knowledge
LiveScience's story on this mentions possible application in "soft robotics" ... using structures that are dexterous without having "bones" to perform tasks similar to those done by elephant trunks and octopus arms:
http://www.livescience.com/animals/physics-behind-cat-drinking-101111.html
Ah ha, thanks Alan! I figured there had to be a connection somewhere :-)
I've added more to the story after talking with Stocker about this...
It doesn't lead to anything that wasn't already known. It was just a way for a group of scientists to get a big federal grant to study this. Someone was already doing research on the mating habits of the fruit fly and they had to choose something else for their science project.
Oh, JustPhil-2336461, you should really read the articles before you throw a sh!tfit. I bolded the pertinent words so you can just skim my response, much in the same way you readthe article.
The anti-science wing of the country thinks all scientific research is done with federal grants, and it's all useless and wasteful.
They then go on their computers, and connect to the internet, to share these thoughts with us.
Irony!
Incidentally, research into the mating habits of fruit flies is only useless if you dislike eating fruit.
Fruit's ok, but I seriously dislike eating FRUITFLIES!
Actually, the engineering behind this could be used to design new types of "soft robots" with catlike tongues.
I'd prefer softer cats with robot-like tongues.
I learned this in physical science class years ago. Can someone explain why this is remarkable. The scientist says it's remarkable that the cats know about the "balance and lap" but it seems to me that it's only a case of an animal ingesting as much liquid as their tongue will allow.
The surface tension and action of the liquid is interesting. I just wonder what payoff this research holds.
In addition to the benefit of gaining new knowledge and understanding, you never know what affect a scientific discovery, even a seemingly useless one, may have on the future. That's why it's discovery. If as humans we'd limited our scientific research to only things that seem to hold an immediate payoff, we'd be in a very sorry state right now.
It does seem like some kind of research that would have been long ago and most probably assumed it had already been done. I remember seeing slow motion videos of different insects in flight where they were trying to see if it could be done mechanically on a small scale.
Who knows, maybe we'll have mechanical insects that run on hydrogen that laps up their own water to convert ;)
They captured slow-motion video of this decades ago, and much study was done then. What's so new about this? Is it a slow news day?
Mostly it's a cute little angle with some interesting physics behind it. You're correct that there was an earlier video study on this and I'm going to try to work this into the item.
There is always a fine line between 'knowing' a thing and doing a thing. When the article talks about how a cat seems to know about the "balance and lap" I am reminded that there are a lot of things that animals, read humans, do such as breathing, eating, walking down the street and avoiding running into things, that if we actually thought about them in a 'knowing how to do it way' I couldn't do or explain.
Isn't that the definition of what is difficult about programming artificial intelligence?
My point is...does the cat know about the balance and lap or just do it?
I think StMiller is correct. It seems more appropriate to say the cat just "does it." They want water (or milk or whatever) so they lap it up.
It would be interesting to see a human built mechanism that could lap up liquid 4 times a second like this.
Don't tell the cat how to drink the water...they might get the Yips and think about it too much and die of thirst. : )
I don't think the cat calculates equations in its head, but I think it does tend toward maximizing the efficiency of its lapping, just as perhaps we tend toward the quickest way to gulp down water when we're thirsty.
I'd have to say it's more along the line of "I'm thirsty" followed by "this isn't working very well" trial & error.
Probably a combination of instinct, experience, and muscle memory, much the same way as an outfielder is able to catch a ball.
Which, when you think about the different factors at play in the process, is nothing short of amazing.
My cat likes to stand on the edge of the water dish. What does this mean?
American-2051576: My cat just hopped up on my lap to get petted, because he likes that.
Your cat stands on the edge of the water for similar reasons--learned behavior. Your cat probably stands on the edge of his water dish because he got wet once, and he doesn't like to get wet when he's drinking.
Our cats often do things "just because."
My cat just decided there was some emergency that required his immediate presence in another room. Go figure.
Can they figured out why my cat, Wolf, jumps on my chest every night and purrs while sticking his claws into my lip?
You named your cat Wolf? That is just awesome. I love that.
Probably because you named him Wolf.
LOL yeah there's alot of things I'd rather know about on why my cat does things the way he does. The irresistable urge to come & try to "talk" to me every time he uses the litter box is the weirdest. It's like he's trying to brag about some awesome dump he took or something.
His mom was a purebread white persian, the Dad was whatever she found when she got out of the house one day. He's 3 times the size of the Mom (14 lbs last time he was at the vet) so I have to wonder what the other half is.
My cat is an 18 year old American Short Hair Tabby named Jethro after Jethro TULL. He weighs 23 pounds and has not an ounce of fat on him, he is just huge. He still hunts and rules around his turf (our house inside and out). Okay, now if you want to hear a STRANGE way for a cat to drink, Jethro dips his front paw into his water and then licks off his fur, go figure. Kind of like filling his paw and slurping it out of his paw.
To A Veteran: My cat does the same thing! And I HAVE watched my cat drink before because we cat owners are crazy like that...! But what she does that seems weird is that she likes to lap along the very side of the bowl, where the bowl and water meet. It always causes water come out over the edge. But she's my baby, and she can do no wrong ;)
EmCat - And brian-397693 says his cat does that also, Ol' Jethro isn't unique in that way as I thought he was. Cats ALWAYS do what they want anyway. Dogs have Masters, Cats have Staff. Have a NICE day.
My husband is a quadralaplegic and I keep a glass of water beside the bed for him. Our little cat, Mollie, dips her foot into it and then licks it off. I think my husband likes cat-foot flavored water! LOL
Did somebody pay for this research? My cat could have told them all this stuff by simply saying (catlike, of course) "What is your point?" yes?
The answer is that the researchers just did this to satisfy their own curiosity. No extra money was expended ... it was basically their time. Stocker borrowed a high-speed camera to take the pictures.
Re-read the article, it says that it wasn't a funded research but purely for curiosity done by borrowing equipment and the likes.
Silly me! I was wondering if the "lap" was where the kittens sat!!ROTF! I loved it. My cat drinks water running from the kitchen faucet and sometimes I just stand there and watch. I have seen the column of water. Way Cool,Alan. Thanks.
And this cost how much? Seriously. I'm watching TV talk about the proposed cuts on Social Security, Medicare, Farm subsidies, cutting the mortgage interest deduction, taxing employer paid health benefits. And now, cat lapping? I can tell you where I'd start cutting....
Try reading the article again, Pat. And then, climb down off of your high horse.
Read the article. The researchers volunteered their time and video equipment to satisfy their curiosity. Contact everyone you can think of to protest cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and everything else low- to middle-class taxpayers need to survive these days. Don't worry about cat lapping.
Gratz Pat-506741 on being part of that group of folks who denounce any research unless it has a tangible benefit to YOU. "Don't attempt to answer why something does what it does, unless there is a profit behind it"
Frankly it's a wonder we ever got out of the trees...
I was going to chime in with
But a heap of people beat me to it. I fail to understand the indignation without atually reading the article.
Do you peopole just read the headline and then post? By that I mean everyone on here who is asking about how much this cost when it clearly said no outside funding. Geeze!
Maybe Disneyland can use the research to have one of its robotic elephants stir water around and lift it into its mouth.
@Pat-506741
Nowhere does it mention that this was paid for by the government. It even specifically states this was done using borrowed equipment and no outside funding. Instead of looking for an excuse to make a thinly veiled political statement, perhaps you should take and react-to the experiment for what it is, scientific curiosity.
LIGHTEN UP FOLKS!!!!
I've known this forever. I learned by watching my cats.
btw Everything about a cat is remarkable/
This was a worthwhile effort...how?
Doesn't matter who funds this - who CARES how a cat and dog drink? It's a waste of time and money.
Is this all you could think to research with your "big brains" - what is the relevance? How does this impact - well, ANYTHING? Must be nice to have that job - where you can fart around and produce results that have zero impact on anything - and still get paid!
If you are going to research ANYTHING - regardless of who pays - the end of the research should have at least a LITTLE relevance - a LITTLE meaning. How BORED were the people that did this?
It does have relevance. If you had read and attempted to comprehend the article, it states that the research could be useful in biomechanical research involving fluid mechanics. As a mechanical engineer myself, I assure you that fluid mechanics is one of the most complicated arenas of continuum mechanics.
If you noticed, the researchers suggest several things that are non-obvious. A) The cat's tongue does not use surface tension. B) The pumping of liquid into the mouth is highly precise, and gives a reason as to why. C) The liquid pumping was optimized by varying the frequency of lapping. D) The cat most probably determined the frequency for maximal fluid transfer from a genetic algorithm.
A and C are highly interesting and novel curiosities in the field of fluid mechanics, specifically applicable to the design of future pumps. You do use running water, don't you? What if a new pump saved 2% on your electricity bill?
B is of interest to a biologist, and possibly an animal psychologist, as it gives a view on to what a cat sees as one of its most valuable assets, and perhaps is genetically pre-programmed to trade off efficiency (a dog's lapping is probably more efficient) for precision (a cat's lapping saves its whiskers).
D is extremely important in the field of control theory known as adaptive control. As I work for a company that manufactures chemical plants, I can assure you that robust and adaptive control are some of the most curious and complicated theories. If we can generate algorithms based on genetic methods that can optimize problems for minimal energy, or maximum efficiency, then we can win.
Perhaps they were not bored, but curious? Curiosity fosters understanding. Understanding fosters invention. Invention recreates our reality. By reprimanding curiosity, you're suggesting that the endeavors of man are essentially for naught.
Unfortunately for the world, your ignorant zealotry is one reason the great USA is headed towards the toilet. Your blatant suppression of freedom (these guys did this on their free time) and knowledge (they were curious) is a main motive suppressing the advancement of man kind.
It wasn't YOUR time, or YOUR money, so why care? The world isn't this pretty little place where you follow these nice set guidelines to discover new inventions. The majority of innovations are found by doing exactly what these folks did. They had a question, and they figured out the answer.
They used their own time and money, and their own cat- no waste. It may not appear to have much value now, but how many people felt it was a waste of time when Alexander Fleming decided to look closer at mold? His looking and experimenting led to antibiotics. That is how all major discoveries have come about- curiousity. Low to no cost is what is really nice about this.
First, they only devoted their time towards the project. Wanting to see how a cat laps is almost like wanting to see a hummingbird's wing flap. It may seem useless, but not only does it satisfy your curiousity, you can use that information to, say, build a useful machine. The knowledge of the hummingbird's maneuverability is useless unless you know how the wing works. For the cat, they can use the 'column' to develop better ways to transport water through difficult places, or to help create machines that are 'soft' and use this mechanism or not. Really, what do people have against curiousity and development these days? Even the smallest discoveries help, but they are always shot down.
This is flamebait. Don't feed the troll.
My son recently graduated high school. Driving past his old high school the other day, I jokingly said, "Bet you wish you were back in school already, huh?" He surprised me by saying he DID enjoy school. I said why? He said he "enjoyed learning something new each day." I thought that was a fascinating answer. Draconian's stupid rant just made me realize that I enjoy learning something new each day too. Hopefully, many many others do too, even if they aren't consciously aware of it. If we didn't, we'd all be as ignorant as Draconian.
So you now want to tell people how to spend their time eh? And their own money? I guess you wouldn't have minded if all these researchers got together when they were bored and watched "Dancing with the Stars". That, of course, is not a waste of time right?
To Draconian:
Where do you work Sir, some boring job where there is no climate for NATURAL God-given CURIOSITY ? It is a good thing that there were SOME CURIOUS, GOOD SCIENTIFIC MEN whose FINE MINDS "JUST WANTED TO KNOW" and NOT too many people like you in the world back when... we would never even have had the advent of a safe way to can meat, fruits and veggies to put in your face and on your shelves! YOU Sir, would be VERY SHOCKED to know just HOW MANY things seemingly mundane little everyday life things that SPARKED HUGE discoveries using THAT little piece of MUNDANE KNOWLEDGE that someone who ACTUALLY HAD CURIOSITY (GEE, there's that WORD again!) It CLEARLY STATES that NO OUTSIDE FUNDING WAS USED (OOPS forgot you don't even care about that!) and the darn camera was BORROWED!!! CAN you PLEASE read the article BEFORE you post?? Furthermore,Sir, by the tone of your entry it is pretty evident that you do NOT care about anything unless it pertains to benefiting YOU??? The article clearly stated that this LITTLE DISCOVERY could VERY POSSIBLY be applied 2 many THINGS IN SCIENCE! i SUGGEST YOU GET OUT MORE or read SOMETHING, ANYTHING- BESDIES THE FUNNY PAPERS. in your spare time. Try watching the Discovery channel even! You just might have YOUR CURIOSITY (DANG! (there's that word again!) sparked ALIVE to do some sleuthing on your own! TRY it you might actually LIKE it!
Did nt we already know that cats do not lap up they curl up water. They take it in on the back of their tongues, while a dog much more like a man laps like crazy. I saw a Crow dropping a nut onto the asphalt, yes he was trying to break it. Or he was practicing for buddies I dont know I did not have time to ask him Because he flew away. And to be more into the Crow of things, is saw about 100 crows this thursday. I have not seen that many together for quite a while now. Oh ya! Cat are Crazy...
My first reaction upon reading the article title was, "But cats don't HAVE laps! They sit on OURS."
That was my first random thought too when I read it.
Me Too!
Yes, I kind of took a chance that folks would figure it out. Somehow "lap" sounded better (and fit better) than "licking" or "drinking" or even "lapping"
I'm just glad they didn't spend public dollars, again they did this research years ago, again with a high speed camera. Still interesting though.
I can't believe I just @!$%#ing read this. I want that time back.
Then I suggest being careful about what you click on. If you don't want to read it, don't bother clicking.
I hereby refund two minutes back to you, Morgs74. Don't spend it all in one place. ;-)
Now now Alan, we both know it probably took him quite a few hours to make it thru that article. So I can understand why he might be upset. 8)
The real question is Can he haz cheezburger now?
LOL you beat me to it.
Not til Caturday.
LOLOL The answer to that UsedMeat is definitely YEZ!!!! I Cutta Cutta put UPZ with duh hooman and madez MY donashun to Zcience! BRINGZ ON THE CHEEZBUGER NOW w FRIES! ( SINZ I STARRRVING I DUZN'T HAV TO SAYZ PLEEZ RYTE? )
Have a gooooood evening gentlemen! May God bless and protect the CURIOSITY of our great minds to follow around MOTHER SCIENCE in her MANY "splendiferous" (Lol) wonderful forms!! PS. LONG LIVE--- I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER! after a loonnnng day in surgery there's NOTHING better! ;) ;) Well, perhaps a COLD Samuel Adams at my side... :))
U win teh interwebz! I tip mah hat 2 u.
Maybe a follow-up research project by this group of "Researchers" will be why farts make noise, and do they really make noise if no one else hears them? Now that's what I've been wondering for some time now.
Flatus is a time-honored subject of medical research ... I'm sure there's lots of literature about the barking spiders. Here's just a sample. Enjoy!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1272559/
... And here's a choice study about "gastrointestinal barotrauma":
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1272787/
I wonder what Morris would have said?
I wonder if some cats struggle with this? My cat rarely ever sticks his tongue right in the water, and instead dips his left paw in the water to soak it up then licks it off his paw.
Wow! brian - I just mentioned up above that my cat Jethro does that exact same thing, sticks his paw in the water and licks his paw. I guess this is more an accepted way for cats to drink than I thought. I guess Jethro isn't the only cat to do that way.
Ha! One of my cats does the same thing. It's like they use their paw as a cup.
I have six cat's but two of them Sweetie and Albeiro they do the same thing, sticks paw water and licks the paw, very surprised they not along. Congratulations to the Cat lovers!!
Alan Boyle - Do you have any comment on all these people's cats who drink water out of their paw or lap water off their fur after dipping it in the water? I thought my cat Jethro was unique in this, but it seems a lot of cats do it. Any comment?
One of my cats does the paw thing. Another drags the water dish across the floor until water splashes out and then she drinks it off the floor. Never have figured out why she does this. I think she's just crazy. (And yet, every time, I put the dish back where it was originally, thus starting the process all over again.)
My cat only does this to get milk out of a cup that's too tall for its tongue to reach the surface.
jennifer - Our cats have US pretty well trained. I have to put four ice cubes in my cats water dish every morning. Does anybody else have to put ice cubes in their cats water dish? If I don't Jethro howls like a Banshee until I do.
My neighbor's cat does the paw in the water. Mine likes to stick his paw in his canned food and lick it off. It makes a big mess.
Interesting about the ice cubes A Veteran. I've only done that for my dogs on a hot day but they don't care if I forget.
Maybe this is the cat equivalent to lifting the pinky while sipping tea? My mom's cat recently started doing the paw-dip method.
Yes, but will this increase the gas milage of my car or pay my bills?
That all depends on how many cats you have in the engine of your car...
I'm sure your research is superior Scott, and will benefit humanity in better ways.
Unless of course you're not doing any, which I figure is pretty likely, and you're just expecting all the scientists in the world to be working on your own personal problems, just 'cause they should.
Good article, Alan. I have 3 cats, One, Two and Three. One will only drink from running water, ie shower, faucet and his personal watering fountain. He loves to drink water from my hand as I am in the shower. Even tho its not out of a bowl, it still cool to watch him drink. Now if I can only teach him not to stick his nose in the water and snark. Another thought, what about the roughage of the tongue, could that have anything to do with the amount of water coming to the mouth?
What life changing research this was. I wonder how much tuition funding this wasted.
Please read the article. There was no funding. The researchers simply took a moment of their time and borrowed a high-speed camera, just to satisfy their curiousity. As for life changing, think of the ways we can use this 'column' to our advantage, like transporting water.
No funding, really?
All research activities with animals complied with and were approved by MIT's Animal
Rights Committee.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/data/science.1195421/DC1/1
What is it wth people not reading the d*mned article, but making little snide comments about cost?
What part of "All research activities with animals complied with and were approved by MIT's Animal Rights Committee" don't you understand. This means that this Committee read, understood, and approved this project! If this little foray was outside of MIT's jurisdiction as the author indicates, why the hell did MIT need to review and approve it in the first place? (I guess this approval process comes free now too?) Plus, I don't know about you, but I don't seem to have access to high speed, digital photography equipment that belongs to a major educational facility. Did he pay a rental fee on it, or just "borrow" it on MIT's dime? Hmmmmmm....... Useless research projects at their best.
What part of "borrowed equipment and no outside funding." don't YOU understand? If equipment was rented, it would have said "rented equipment" Borrowed means loaned with no obligation. "No outside funding" means they paid for it themselves, and is none of your or my business to get our panties in a bunch over. And "All research activities with animals complied with and were approved by MIT's Animal Rights Committee" (keywords, Animal Rights Committee) means oversight to prevent cruelty to the test subjects, not that there would be in this experiment, but animal rights groups have made such oversight a required formality, as it should be IMO. And since it is formally required, it is free. The researchers just have to adhere to their rules.
One interesting thing I learned from this article is that not all cats drink the same way. brian-397693's cat dips his left paw in water and licks water off his paw, MY cat Jethro does the same thing, dips his paw in the water and then licks it, Ol' Jethro isn't the only cat who does this, so how many different ways DO cats drink?
None. But whatever you or your parents paid to educate you is lost money. Read the article - no money, volunteered time, borrowed equipment.
This is exactly why America is losing it's edge in research: pork barrel research on stupid projects like this.
Instead why not research something meaningful like how to make a GOOD electric battery using commonly available compounds instead of risking the use of rare earths that China is beginning to monopolize with future disastrous results.
Well, scientists already research meaningful subjects, and though this experiment does not seem very useful, I'm sure these researchers could find a way to use the information to their advantage. The 'column' could be developed into many things, and can very well be useful. After all, we use many attributes and behaviors of animals in objects such as planes (shark, bird) submarines (shark, whale, sea lion, dolphin), boats (otters, sea birds), non-collapsive tunnels (moles, rats, mice, ground hogs), dams, (beavers), jet probulsion (octopi, squid), etc. There are many things we've learned from animals in small, seemingly useless experiments, and have applied those studies to machines. Mankind would be far behind without these experiments.
It's only pork barrel research if there's government funding. And since the article CLEARLY states that there was no such funding used for this research, it suggests you didn't bother to read the article. It makes one question if you gave much time or thought to your comment in general.
Oh, and another advantage that China has over the US...the government spends a LOT on research. In fact, their government spending (as of 2006) was second only to, you guessed it, the good ol' US of A. Like it or not, we must continue to spend money on research if we are to stay ahead. And some of it might look useless to you, but that's not saying much.