>Well it seems that more money is wasted on stupid research to find out how moggies lap up liquids so elegantly.

Well, actually not, if the New York Times can be believed:

"The project required no financing. The robot that mimicked the cat's tongue was built for an experiment on the International Space Station, and the engineers simply borrowed it from a neighboring lab."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/science/12cats.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB

I, for one, am grateful for any information that will help me better understand my baffling cats!