Monday, October 13, 2008

Gecko glue?


Consider the lowly gecko (no, not the little green dude with an accent selling insurance). Each one of it's toes are covered in microscopic hairs, known as setae, with even smaller branches at the tips, called spatulae. This gives the gecko's foot an amazing amount of surface cross section allowing it to climb vertical surfaces and even hang by one toe on these surfaces. Now US chemists claim to have created an adhesive based on nanotubes that it is 10 times stickier than some gecko feet. Even more impressively, like a real gecko foot, it can also be easily unstuck with a tug in the right direction.

Thanks to Shaun Saunders for the post

<- New Sciencetist article ->

(Image: Science)



No comments: