Reply To: Squirrels vs Cats

The secret behind the gecko’s extraordinary wall-climbing ability is a unique quick-release mechanism that allows it to adhere strongly to a surface, but then detach with ease.

Researchers in the US say that the mechanism could be used to make advanced glues or even car braking systems.

Geckos get their adhesive ability from sticky hairs – called setae – that cover the lizards’ toes. But the stickiness is unlike conventional adhesives, which either adhere weakly and detach with ease like Post-it notes, or are strong and hard to remove like duct tape. By contrast, gecko hairs paradoxically adhere strongly yet detach easily.

Bizarre solution:

To find out what makes this possible, Keller Autumn, a biologist at the Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, US, and colleagues measured the force required to detach gecko hairs from a surface, and how that force changed according to the angle at which it is applied.

When the force causes the hairs to lie at an angle of about 30 degrees to the horizontal, they can resist enormous forces. “Geckos are vastly over-engineered,” says Autumn. “One gecko could resist the weight of 130 kilograms.” At angles of over 90 degrees, however, the hairs easily became detached.

And because the hairs are solid structures, they are not damaged in this process and can be used repeatedly.

Autumn told New Scientist: “It’s such a bizarre solution to an engineering problem. No one would have ever thought of it if it hadn’t evolved in geckos.”

Gecko adhesive is so effective that he believes it could one day find use in car braking systems. He calculates it could stop a car travelling at 80 kilometres per hour in a distance of just 5 metres, using just one third of a square metre.

once again modern technology fails to accomplish what blind, random, unplanned birth defects are able to.

mutations: we salute you!