Scientists understand the mechanism of cat washing
Cats are known for their love for a manicured appearance, but they manage to bring themselves “up” using only one language, still remained a mystery.
Alexis Noel, a mechanical engineer from Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta), began to explore the bristles on a cat’s tongue, when he saw a cat stuck them in the shag rug, which tries by mistake to clean up.
“I was at home watching TV with the cat family. Murphy, a three-year short-haired breed cat, decided that lying on the couch, the blanket smells good and started to lick it. When I stopped laughing, I have a question, how’d he get caught up in the soft tissue?” — said Noel.
He filmed the process of licking with the camera with time-lapse, and then created a 3D model of the cat language.
It turned out that the bristles are in the shape of claws of cats and represent a hooked “Velcro”. When the cat slips tongue fur, the bristles collect dirt and fallen hairs, reports Live Science.
Moreover, “when language meets an obstacle, it penetrates the “rotating hooks” deeper clinging to a obstacle to pull it.” The mobility of the bristles helps the cat more effective to clean your hair. In fact, each cat has a “miniature organic cleaner”.
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In future studies, the Noel is going to examine how the distance between the bristles on the tongue affects the distribution of saliva on the surface of wool. “Saliva dissolves dirt and grease, lubricates the hair and increases the friction between the hairs, reducing the likelihood of pain at the loss of wool,” said Noel, noting that he also wants to know more about the languages of lions, tigers and other big cats to be classified as “language skills” of the cat family.
Study of Noel in the future will help researchers to design soft robots made of plastic and rubber that can “cling” objects and surfaces. Or, in the end, the fundamentals of owning a cat language will lead to the modernization of conventional combs.