Slashdot Mirror
Artificial Gecko Adhesive, Now In Experimental Glue
thefickler writes "Scientists at the University of Dayton have created a peel-on, peel-off glue which mimics the wall-climbing abilities of Spiderman. The substance, based on the feet of the Gecko lizard, is three times stickier than existing adhesives. The material is so strong that a 4×4mm pad would be enough to hold a 1.5kg object such as a hardcover book. However, it's likely too expensive for consumer use: one British scientist calculates that a single Post-it note using the glue would cost around a thousand dollars." We've mentioned the possibilities of synthetic gecko technology several times before, including as applied in this wall-climbing robot; commercial applications have seemed just around the corner for a while now.
Hopefully, that English nature show presenter who follows the GEICO gekko around will begin using this stuff so he doesn't fall off RVs, dumpsters, etc., while he's trying to spy on his quarry.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
How do you "peel-on"?
So its just like those 3M sticky hooks you can stick to your wall, hang some reasonably heavy stuff on them, then pull downwards on a tab attached to the sticky part and they come back off the wall no problem... But stronger.
Color me unimpressed. Can someone get me excited about new problems this address?
Overclockers
They mention the cost, but surely that will come down. Anything breakthrough like that is going to be expensive to create until the figure out a way to mass produce it.
I wonder, however, the type of strength you'd have to have to actually "do a Spiderman" up the building. Yes it will hold you to the building, but you'll still have to have the upper body strength to advance your way up without handholds to help if it's a flat surface.
Sci-Fi fun aside, there will no doubt be a lot of uses for this product. And a few years down the road we will have infomercial guru, Billy Mays shouting at us to try new and improved "Gecko Glue" to hang pictures and fix broken mugs. :)
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
I don't really care how "super" the glue may be.
The cover of the book may not be strong enough such that after sticking the book to 4x4mm patch, the book just falls off. The book will be on the floor with a ~4x4mm scar. The cover just isn't strong enough to defy gravity on a mere 4x4mm of glue.
A "spiderman" scenario suffers from the same complications. Except we're talking scarred fingertips. Ewww!
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Peel-On, apply directly to the peel!
Or maybe they mean you have to apply it in a reverse peeling motion instead of simply slamming it straight down....
Can it be removed instantly without solvents and with no damage to the materials bonded together?
Well, there goes my Might Putty reference...
So, "lay on" or "roll on"?
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
Watch next years' Department of Defense budget...it'll be a line item called "Military-Grade Reusable Adhesive Note-Taking Device".
The Spiderman "application" may be useful for explaining the general function of the glue, but I wonder how it would fare in actual building-scaling. The fact that one only needs change the angle of the glue application area to detach it makes it seem too unreliable to use for holding up objects. I'd much rather be held 100 feet in the air by a cable than by a square inch of an adhesive (and in fact, I'd rather not be held in the air at all). This is just my intuition, of course, and not carefully researched. I'd be a lot happier seeing it used in other commercial applications—e.g., in the place of soldering—when/if it becomes commercial viable to do so.
I am so glad they came up with a new gecko adhesive. I haven't had good results nailing my geckos down, they eat the tape, and the natural gecko adhesive just doesn't cut it.
Actually, you are being a pedant. You're right, but, y'know, I'm sure you did know what the OP meant.
I don't mean this as an insult; it's just that your post made me grin. Kind of like when someone underscores what they are expressing metaphorically by saying, "literally." Like: "I was so hungry I literally could have eaten a horse." I've actually taken to saying, myself, "[blah blah], literally! By which I mean figuratively."
And when anyone questions my most outlandish statements, I tell them, straight faced, "I always speak in hyperbole. Always. ALLLWAYS."
The CB App. What's your 20?
There are probably a few more uses for it than using a small pad to blue a book to a wall and to be spiderman. Don't be so obtuse.
yOUR
Isn't the lameness filter designed to block posts like this one?
Why would I want to stick something to an artificial gecko? Or am I not getting this...
Because you can - or because you should?
Every time i see pedant im reminded of the IT crowd episode
Jen: "His name is Peter File"
Moss: "Whos a pedophile?"
Everyone shares this flaw; humans in general fail logic, for example Christians are often judgmental of other religions or non-believers when their doctrine says they should be tolerant.
That seems to be a weakness/defense mechanism of any religious person or culture when they are insecure/new in their faith. Anyone who is at a fundamental level of understanding in their belief is going to see it as black and white, with-us or against-us situation. This is amusingly true of a belief in tolerance and diversity as well. The believers in the-one-right-way are usually a destructive force in what ever genre their belief is in. For a easy modern cultural view of this phenomenon just look at the many destructive effects of Political Correctness.
Now for an on topic bit: How long until Gecko Glue can be scaled up enough to be cost effective in it's reusablility? Cheap as Velcro per square inch?
We are all just people.
was that you can apply it and remove it as many times as you like. Removing it doesn't damage the tape. It is more like a velcro than a glue.
I read TFA.
It's nano-velcro.
Or: I'm so verbose and well-heeled that I could literarily spew a file cabinet full of words.
(slash red-underscored "literarily", yet it's a Merriam-defined word.... go... figures, hehehehe)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
How many of those hooks does it take to hang an M1 Abram?
Tape Characteristics:
Area: 4mm^2
Weight It Holds: 1.5kg
Tape holds: 533.3 lbs/in^2
M1 Abram Tank Characteristics:
Weight: 135200 lbs
Amount of tape needed: 1.76 ft^2
Kind of like when someone underscores what they are expressing metaphorically by saying, "literally." Like: "I was so hungry I literally could have eaten a horse."
I have literally eaten a horse you insensitive clod!
It was mighty tasty too.
The Science Channel has a very good example of how they replicate the gecko adhesiveness. http://science.discovery.com/video/weird-connections.html?playerId=1803212346&titleId=1805366122
Gecko glue? Isn't that what Firefox does, bind Gecko to the user? Oh, wait, wrong gecko. . .
SSC
Now I can stop stapling actual geckos to stuff to attach them to my walls.
Can it be removed instantly without solvents and with no damage to the materials bonded together?
Yes, that's the whole point of this.
Think about a gecko, does it rip the paint off walls with each step? The bond is easily released by peeling but sticks strongly if you try to slide it, like a post-it note but stronger. Apparently it is self-cleaning too.
It doesn't bond the way glue or other adhesives do, the adhesion is from the addition of the van der Waals force from millions/billions of tiny "hairs". more info
This sounds like a perfect solution for adhering the tiles to the outside of the space shuttle, provided it can withstand the heat. Considering the glue would be on the back of the insulating tiles, does that mean the temperatures would be tolerable enough for it to work?
2 cents
I can't believe you called me verbose and well-heeled! Next thing you know, you'll be using the P-word... Professorial!
The CB App. What's your 20?
Did you eat horse, or did you eat a horse? That is, did you eat an entire horse?
I had horse when I was in France a few years ago. When friends asked me how it was, I'd say, "It was g-o-o-o-o-o-d!" (think like a whinny)
The CB App. What's your 20?
We've mentioned the possibilities of synthetic gecko technology several times before, including as applied in this wall-climbing robot;
I say screw the robots, I want to be able to climb up walls and ceilings myself!
Reading only the title - as is traditional around here - why would I want an adhesive which only adheres to geckos?
Do I have to have eaten the WHOLE thing, or just the edible parts?
This gets posted verbatim to just about every story. It's trash, the poster probably doesn't even look for replies.
They could at least vary it a bit, now not only is it stupid, it's stale.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
hmm... that dÃes resemble spiderman. in the first movie, they used tiny hairs as an explanation for his wall-climbing as well..
i'm actually getting interested in this :)
Don't you ever get bored copying and pasting this same old crap into every single slashdot post? Particularly when you just *know* that no-one is going to read it?
Give yourself a rest, and give everyone else back their bandwidth, and stop already. You have an axe to grind, maybe. But the rest of the world just isn't interested. Go get some help.
I wrote that originally, out of my own head, when I posted it. I've never seen it before...
Support my political activism on Patreon.