Cats Try Not to Make a Splash When Drinking

The exquisite balance and near gravity-defying grace of cats extends to the way they drink, according to a new Science journal paper that is the first to explain the physics of cat lapping.

An Academy Award-winning film recorded by MIT engineer Doc Edgerton in 1941 showed that a drinking cat curls its tongue backward, like a letter 'J' shape, so that the top surface of the tongue barely brushes the surface of liquid. Since that film debuted, however, no one has been able to explain the physics underlying the sophisticated process -- until now.