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Scientists Discover What Makes Geckos Stick
Scratch-O-Matic writes "This story at CNN explains how gecko feet are sticky due to an electro-mechanical phenomenon rather than a chemical glue, as had been previously assumed. The gecko is one of just a few animals capable of climbing vertical and beyond-vertical surfaces that are smooth and dry. Researchers have discovered that the secret to the adhesion lies in millions of tiny hairs called
'setae.' Each hair is the width of two human hairs, and contains about 1000 little pads at the end. The pads are so tiny that they actually cling to the surface at the molecular level, due to van der Waal forces. A gecko using all of its setae and pads at the same time could support 280 pounds. Seems to me that his should be easily replicated in the coming age of nanotechnology." Other readers point to the AP story, as carried by Yahoo! and also playing at Salon.
This study sponsored by the "The Association For Producing Low Cost Sticky Notes".
I'd imagine we could put the sticky note out of business if we could get markers to write on geckos with......
All I need to climb walls are hairy palms? I'll get right on that!
Karma: Marginal (mostly due to the border around the website)
This has been known about since 2000 at least; we used to have endless discussions over the fact that geckos have the impressive ability to stick to ceilings in a vacuum, discussions on topics such as:
a) how did they find out the details? Did it involve a research assistant, a glass container, a vacuum pump and a large supply of geckos?
b) How did Geckos evolve this feature? Are geckos secretly descended from a life form that can stick to the outside of space craft?
c) Alternatively, does this prove that creatures are designed rather than evolved, and the design process is a bit more like the PhD process than anything else; some little godling spends millenia working on geckos in order to submit some paper 'An alternative mechanism for achieving stickiness in creatures' only to have it discredited by a board of professors who have always used suction and thats how they believe all creatures should stick.
The 280 lb gecko they used for the experiment simply asked for more donuts when questioned about the validity of the scientists claims.
--It's Pimptastic!--
They figured how Gecko's stick to glass surfaces, but they never figured out how they let go! Another fifty years of research to figure that out...sheesh!
Lab equipment for studying herpi-podiatry: $68,000
Salaries for scientists and lab assistants: $230,000
Ticket to "Spiderman": $8.50
The fact that this was discovered only after getting the idea from the Spiderman movie: priceless.
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