sample: v8

DOG SLOBS:   Dogs are absolute slobs.  They drink like there’s no tomorrow and leave their water bowl with water all over the place and dripping from their snouts.

DOG SLOBS:   In 2015,  scientists at Virginia Tech learned that when dogs drink, they curl their tongue downward and back on itself like a marshmallow.

DOG SLOBS:   Dogs hit the water hard with their tongue like a hammer.  Their tongue plows into the water with a splash.

DOG SLOBS:   Dogs rapidly withdraw their tongue after they hit the water with their tongue.

The bouncing water sticks to the tongue because of cohesion. The bent tongue has greater surface area than a straight tongue and, as it speedily withdraws, a column of water follows it like a pied piper.  Some of this floating water lands in their mouths, some on their snouts and more on the floor.

ELEGANT CATS:   Cats have rough sandpaper tongues, but the very tip of their tongue is smooth like a spoon.

ELEGANT CATS:   Cat’s tongues descend to the water bowl and the bent smooth part of the tongue makes contact with the water but doesn’t pierce it.

The cat then draws its tongue back into its mouth, but with less speed than a dog.  A crisp column of water follows the tongue and, forty times a second, the cat closes its mouth neatly on the sailing water–without so much as a drop on its face or whiskers.

Neatness plus.

ELEGANT CATS:   Computers were checked for what the best lapping speed would be for cats to get the most water in their mouth with each movement of the tongue.

Guess what?  The cats had exactly the right speed.

ELEGANT CATS:   Scientists calculated the best speed for larger cats like the lion, tiger and leopard.

The big cats, however, did not have the speed exactly right for their huge tongues.  It is a mystery how they drink.  However, it works, so apparently DNA has something right.

DNA-coded tongue speeds.  Now that is very strange.

ELEGANT CATS:   Scientists are studying these hi-tech tongues and also elephant trunks and octopus tentacles in hopes of making super-sophisticated “soft robots.”

ELEGANT CATS:   When we study living things and then apply what we learn to technology it is called biomimicry.  You’ll see biomimicry in the area of fluid dynamics powerfully affect many areas of life in your lifetime.