The physics of how cats drink

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Michael

An unfunded, seemingly just-for-fun study of how cats drink was recently carried out. Results show that they only touch their the surface of their tongues to the water. They use inertia to bring the water into their mouths, closing their jaws before the counter-acting force of gravity takes hold. The rate at which cats lap matters, which is a testament to evolution, of course. Interestingly, one model the researchers used predicted that larger cats would lap at slower rates. It turns out that that is true. But what I find interesting is utilization of social tools by the researchers to find their results.

“It occurred to me that there were some interesting biophysics behind that process,” Stocker said.

So he borrowed a high-speed video camera from his lab and taped Cutta Cutta drinking. With several other curious researchers along for the ride, Stocker analyzed those videos, along with video collected from Zoo New England and YouTube.com videos of lions, tigers and other big cats drinking.

“It seems to be that this is the first study in Science that uses YouTube as part of the research,” Stocker said.

…

The model also allowed the researchers to predict that larger cats would need to lap slower to strike a balance between the inertia and gravity of the water picked up by their tongues. Sure enough, the videos showed that lions and tigers lap less than 2 times per second, about half the rate of domestic cats.

YouTube, Facebook, Twitter…like it or not, they and their analogues are the future. (And personally, I like it.)

Filed under: Science | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Christopher Maloney tweets

Posted on May 17, 2010 by Michael

One of the successes of my original letter to the editor about Christopher Maloney is that it’s unlikely he’ll write in support of naturopathy again any time soon. If he does, he’ll just be re-raising his profile, prompting another, cutting letter from me, and probably getting a few more Google results for himself. I’ve said it several times: there are far more interesting topics for a blog, but so long as he continues to try and put his quackery out there, I’m not going to be the person who ignores it. Simply, I, quite honestly, do not want to see people going to a naturopath when they need serious medical attention.

And the thing is, I don’t think I’ve been unclear about any of this. Sure, I never said my paper is UMA endorsed, nor have I ever said I’m an English major, nor have I listed my age as 18 (I’m 25, as of Sunday, for those interested), and sure, Maloney inanely thought otherwise, but I still think there’s no excuse for not knowing that silence is the only reasonable option for him right now – especially since I’ve made the point over and over. Really, there’s nothing he can do to help himself at this point; he can only not make things worse.

So that’s why it’s so perplexing that Maloney would start Tweeting. So far he’s only had vague, new agey-sounding posts.

The impossible is simply a few steps removed from what you consider ordinary. Focused attention will draw it into your ordinary sphere.

So inspirational! But whatever. If he wants to spout truisms or whathaveyou, he’s welcome to do it; I can’t muster enough concern to make posts about each one. (Plus they’re even less interesting than the rest of his life.) I’m just interested to see how long until he starts disparaging vaccines while promoting black elderberry or some other dangerous malarkey that can have the actual result of making people less healthy.

Filed under: Pure bullshit | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

For the sake of…Twitter?

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Michael

Apparently FTSOS got a couple of hits from Twitter. I’m curious which posts were linked and who did it. I encourage such activity greatly. Two million more times and I’ll be as popular as PZ.

Filed under: Administrative | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »