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."

Sweet, velcro obsolete?

[zakezuke]

While I have not studied the domestic gecho, I can already see an application releasing existing things we have from postit notes (you can't really clean them) to velcro. Not to speak of velvet padding based on the gecho material to help anchor something in the event of earthquake... this fall under the catagory of cool beans.

Presently, with the exception of that 3m postit stuff, the only thing we have close to a reuseable adheasive that I know about is spray glue. Per the instructions on the can you apply, let dry, and it in theory stays sticky. As long as you don't mind running the risk of having green goo stuck to places. Double stick tape is also a current product i've used to mount stuff with the intent of having it removable. It's only a soso solution.

I'd be hip to a gecho solution.

Peeling

[Inflatable Hippo]

The act of peeling tape is to apply a large force to a small area of the tape, overcomming the adhesion locally.

A Gecko may well use the same trick.

Consider this experiment: Paint your hand and plant it flat on a piece of paper. Lift your hand and the paper comes too.

Try it again but this time peel your hand away palm first then fingers then finger tips. The paper stays on the table.

This is how Spider Man does it, rent the DVD and use slow motion - It's True!

Greptile...

[jpellino]

3M make a tape called 'Greptile" that Pearl Izumi made into a set of matching handlebar tape and cycling glove. Each has lots of microscopic protrusions that make the things stick like crazy to each other - not sure how microscopic, but the ads always had EM photos of the surface. 3M also sells the raw tape. Reviews are great, but it never really caught on. For most cyclists, increased padding is prolly preferred over increased grip - you can always squeeze harder.

Re:But . . .

[kiravuo]

Tire design is not as easy, Gecko tires would most likely stick to dirt, not the road. It would be like braking on ball bearings.

Unless you attach a lint roller on the top of each tire to pick up the dirt...

Seriously, my rock climbing shoes use sticky rubber and if I walk on sand or dirt I have to clean the shoes before I climb.

kiravuo

Re:Nanoscopic??

[cybermace5]

It is pretty annoying.

People don't think about what they're writing anymore. It's like they thought "Oooh, microscopic has a micro in it, which means a millionth. So if I say nanoscopic, that means even smaller!"

When in reality micro- in this context just means small, and -scopic refers to seeing. A much better choice of words would have been nanoscale. A buzzword in itself, but a bit more accurate.

Re:But . . .

[jedinite]

Not every tire produced is a commercial tire for use on the highway.

If this technology can be used to create stickier rubber, it would probably first be applied to r-compound tires, i.e. racing slicks. For example, these Hoosier R3S03 [tirerack.com] tires that we run on our race car [performify.com].

The behavior that you describe, your climbing shoes picking up sand/dirt is already typical behavior of existing track rubber - it also picks up small rocks, bits of rubber, small children or pets, etc...

If this technology pans out for tire use, you will probably see it in Formula One followed by trickle down in to less-advanced racing series followed by eventual trickle down to consumer r-compound tires.

Re:wait wait

[The Only Druid]

There are several explanations given in the comics:

Earlier comics explained his adhesion abilities based on a sort of static cling, i.e. that his body projected a static electric feild around his skin that extended a few inches in either direction, and when he focused he could control it. This was, of course, because people didn't know how spiders clung to walls at the time, so it was a BS explanation. To put it in context, remember that they gave Spider Man an ESP "Spider sense" despite the fact that its clear that spiders have no ability to psychically predict the future.

Later (80s-90s) comics seemed to suggest that he had microfiliments protruding from his skin, much like this gecko tape or the movie, but never made a big deal about it.

More interestingly, the early comics of the new millenium included an extensive storyline that indicated that the spider-powers were actually magical. There was a whole storyline wherein it seems that Peter is the latest in a LONG line of spider-powered avatars.

Alternately, consider the general explanation for super-powers in Marvel: humanity contains an X-Gene, because of the manipulations of the Celestials. Certain events, especially radiation, activate it. With mutants, the radiation in utero causes the mutation; with people like Spider Man, Captain America or The Fantastic Four, radiation encountered during life did it. The mutation, though, is connected to the psychological states of people, i.e. conscious minds around the activation of the X-Gene somehow influence its "powers". This is a nice explanation of why Peter gains the "spider sense" despite it having NO analogue in real spiders: his understanding of spiders suggested that they had ESP, so his powers unconsciously developed including that ability.