Gecko Feet Inspire Sticky Tape

Makarand writes "Geckos have the remarkable ability to climb the most smooth surfaces and hang from glass ceilings with a single toe. Their feet are covered with millions of nanoscopic keratin hairs that can exert an intermolecular force - called van der Waals force - producing an adhesive effect on surfaces they walk on. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon have been able to mimic the adhesive ability of Gecko feet with a synthetic material that could find applications in new types of vehicle tires or allowing robots to climb walls. The material is made by using a mould created by a lithographic process and consists of a flexibile and strong substrate covered with 100 million nanoscopic hair each centimetre square. It might take several more years before Gecko tape is made commercially available to the wanna-be Spiderman, but he will have to thank the Gecko for that, not the spider."

Re:wait wait

[tankdilla]

Ever wonder how spiderman can stick to surfaces through his costume? Sticky clothes?

Also, according to Spiderman the movie, which is in no way an authoritative source, Spiderman had little jagged, blade things that came out of his hand. So when he lays the smackdown on somebody you can bet it leaves a mark.

Re:More geckos

[ctid]

It's not the same story. The one before was about discovering how geckos stick to things. This one is about synthesizing a kind of sticky tape which uses the same "approach".

This isn't usable for humans

[Anonymous Coward]

When you multiply a radius of a 3D object by 10, you get 100 times bigger area with 1000 times bigger volume and mass.

Gecko can climb walls and ceilings because it is so small that ratio between touching area and mass is quite large. Humans would need to have huge hands to achieve same kind of ratio.

Nanoscopic??

[dreamchaser]

Why do people have to make up new words when the term 'microscopic' is what we are really talking about. Anything that you can't see with the naked eye is microscopic...Smacks of 'hey let's throw in some high tech sounding buzzword so it looks even cooler than it is' to me.

Not that it isn't cool. It is. I want my Spider Man gloves!

Re:Weight limits? Tilting Cars needed ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you say 1 mile per gallon and a top speed of about 25 miles per hour?

Rolling resistance of tires made with this stuff would have to be insanely high.

Re:This isn't usable for humans

[AndrewHowe]

Well, the article says 1kg per square centimetre. Let's say your average geek is about 100kg ;) So to support yourself on one hand, your hand would need to be 100cm^2, or about 10x10 cm. It's not that far out. Maybe you would need to lose some of that belly, or use two hands.

Don't buy it.

[Lux]

Geckos are living critters, this stuff isn't. If you base a robot on this stuff, I'm guessing it will work for a day, then fall off the ceiling when the fibers are worn down. Keratin is the big clue there. It's the same protein that's in our fingernails.