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Scientists Developing Commercially Viable Synthetic Gecko

Posted by Zonk on Sun Dec 10, 2006 11:30 PM
from the better-than-synthetic-llama dept.
Science
Gordon from Seattle writes to mention a CNN article about a new way to hang out. A British aerospace team is working on a super-sticky substance they're calling "Synthetic Gecko". It mimics the hairs on a gecko's foot, and may eventually be developed as a reusable adhesive. From the article: "Each of the microscopic setae on a gecko's foot has a mushroom shaped cap on the end, less than one-thousandth of a millimeter across. This ensures that the gecko's foot is in very close contact with the surface beneath. The cumulative attractive force, called van der Waals force, of these setae allows the lizard to scurry up walls and ceilings, and even hang from polished glass surfaces. In 2003 scientists at the University of Manchester produced a one centimeter patch of 'gecko tape,' but neither the University of Manchester nor University of California teams managed to produce the material in a greater quantity, unlike Haq and Sargent, who have already tested areas larger than 10 centimeters-squared."
+ -
story

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[+] Scientists Discover What Makes Geckos Stick 354 comments
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.
[+] Hardware: Robo-Gecko Climbs Glass 143 comments
galactic_grub writes "Researchers at Stanford have developed a robot that mimics the extraordinary climbing skills of the Gecko. These creatures can climb sheer surfaces thanks to the intermolecular forces exerted by millions of tiny hairs their feet, called setae. The robot, Stickybot, has polymer pads on its feed with synthetic setae. Check out the video of it climbing up a sheet of glass."
[+] Technology: Artificial Gecko Adhesive, Now In Experimental Glue 102 comments
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.
[+] Technology: Gecko-Inspired Dry Adhesive Set For Space 141 comments
AndreV writes "Biomimetic adhesives aren't new, but a PhD graduate in British Columbia has developed a new method of creating microscopic, mushroom-like plastic structures in order to produce a dry adhesive that mimics the stickiness of gecko feet—and is prepping his glue-free innovation for outer space. A research group at his university, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, is engineering a spider-like, sticky-footed climbing robot destined to explore Mars, and it is also developing reusable attaching systems for astronauts to use where magnetic and suction systems generally fail. In the future, he says, single-use versions could be used in any number of medical applications as well as for replacements for everyday sticky needs, such as Post-It notes and Scotch tape."
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  • SpiderMan (Score:3, Funny)

    by Secret Rabbit (914973) on Sunday December 10 2006, @11:34PM (#17190540) Journal
    I can hardly wait! When this is out I can /really/ play Spiderman!!

  • Ah yes, Velcro Animal research of 40 years ago. (Score:5, Funny)

    by tulsaoc3guy (755854) on Sunday December 10 2006, @11:38PM (#17190564)
    This story is reminiscent of the intrepid discoverers of the elusive Velcro animal of 40 years ago.
  • ...as long as the synthetic geckos aren't made into shill whores for low rent insurance companies.

  • Surface Dust (Score:5, Insightful)

    by camperdave (969942) on Sunday December 10 2006, @11:43PM (#17190596) Journal
    Every surface outside of a clean room is coated with dust. Unless there is some cleaning mechanism, this will clog with dust and become non-sticky. Geckos probably lick their feet clean every once in a while, or have some other bio-mechanism to decontaminate their feet. How will this syntha-gecko sticky pad keep clean?

    • Re:Surface Dust (Score:5, Informative)

      by Whiney Mac Fanboy (963289) * <whineymacfanboy@gmail.com> on Sunday December 10 2006, @11:58PM (#17190736) Homepage Journal
      Geckos probably lick their feet clean every once in a while, or have some other bio-mechanism to decontaminate their feet.

      According to this science news article, [sciencenews.org] gecko feet are self cleaning. It's one of the properties that makes synthetic gecko adhesive so attractive.

    • Re:Surface Dust (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 10 2006, @11:58PM (#17190738)
      dust, sand, small sticks, etc. don't have enough surface area to generate enough Van der Waals force to effectively stick to the tape. this is why gecko's don't need to "lick there feet" to keep them from getting clogged with dust

    • Geckos probably lick their feet clean every once in a while
      Yeah, I know the adhesive bond is fairly easy to break when you peel at an angle.

      But even so when I read your post I got a sudden mental image of a gecko hopping around with its tounge stuck to its foot :)

  • all true (Score:4, Funny)

    by deevnil (966765) on Sunday December 10 2006, @11:45PM (#17190618)
    I've seen a lizard leap onto a pane of glass and scurry up - almost gave up the hunt but I didn't want it freaking me out in the middle of the night. They're as sticky as that protective film that people never remove from the plastic faceplates on radios /and/ they change colors, formidable pests. If only we could crack the secrets of lizard technology.. Cars that run on flies with tires that could adhere to any surface...
    • Pests?!

      They eat cockroaches. Treat them like the Egyptians treated the cats around their granaries.
    • ...tires that could adhere to any surface
      Now, that IS a good idea! Tires are good if they adhere well.
      • I doubt it would work any better on ice. The surface of ice (unless it is extremely cold) is always a thin layer of liquid water due to surface tension properties of the unattached hydrogen bonds. But since this is an exercise in surface characteristics it would be an interesting experiment to try. What if gecko feet reduce the monolayer of liquid?

        Having good adherence to sand is also not very useful since you just cover the tire with loose sand. But perhaps good adherence to a clean road might help, th
        • Gecko feet would probably capillary "drink of" and absorb at least some part of that thin layer of water, like a brush or a mop does. Anyway, although at present certainly much more expensive, even if it wouldn't be much better, I am sure it wouldn't be any worse either, compared to common tire rubber.

  • "Although the defendant manufactures and sells these 'GeckoBoots' to the public, the public is not warned that the average kitchen ceiling is painted and thus not an appropriate surface for the GeckoBoots, nor is the public warned against attempting to use GeckoBoots near a dishdrainer filled with glasses and knives...."

  • Geko Hunt (Score:3, Funny)

    by dark grep (766587) on Sunday December 10 2006, @11:51PM (#17190662)
    That will come as a great relief to the gecko population around my neighbourhood - which I hunt and tie to my hands and feet to I can hang out on the ceiling.

  • Rock climbing (Score:3, Funny)

    by metlin (258108) <narayan@f a s . h a r v ard.edu> on Sunday December 10 2006, @11:51PM (#17190670) Homepage Journal
    Can you imagine the rock climbing possibilities!

    As a rock climber, this is too cool.

    Trad, Sport and Gecko? That would be something.

  • Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nimey (114278) on Sunday December 10 2006, @11:51PM (#17190672) Homepage Journal
    {insert Mozilla joke here}

  • New Synthetic Gecko (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 11 2006, @12:00AM (#17190752)
    Tastes just like real gecko!

  • One Simple call (Score:3, Funny)

    by RMB2 (936187) on Monday December 11 2006, @12:11AM (#17190838)
    One square meter of the stuff on a small family sized car could save you up to 15%

  • 3M has similar... Greptile (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tmack (593755) on Monday December 11 2006, @12:13AM (#17190854) Homepage Journal
    As the subject states, Ive had some cycling gloves with matching bar tape for several years now with similar tech... 3M makes the stuff called Greptile, thats basically a material with a bunch of tiny hair like things on one side. When used with a similar material on whatever you want to grip, its almost like having velcro, but being able to let go with out having to pull it apart. It was designed along the same lines as well, hence the name:

    Greptile [3m.com]

    Worked pretty well, and even improved the grip between the gloves and stuff that didn't have the material on it. Only problem was the haird tend to wear out/fall off over time, so now those gloves have a few bald spots where the rubberish material has worn through and they aren't nearly as grippy

    Tm

  • DONT DO IT! (Score:5, Funny)

    by pablo_max (626328) on Monday December 11 2006, @12:16AM (#17190880)
    Before you even try...Do NOT use this to masturbate!!! Seriously, you WILL regret it.
  • A synthetic gecko, or synthetic gecko-derived adhesives?
  • Why would I want a synthetic lizard when I can buy a real lizard at the pet store? The last thing I need is a glow-in-the-dark lizard blending in with the blue lights on my computer at night.

  • Gecko Gloves (Score:3, Interesting)

    by CODiNE (27417) on Monday December 11 2006, @12:35AM (#17190996) Homepage
    I keep waiting for someone to make these into Spidey gloves... would be pretty cool at first, til everyone realizes they don't lock their attic windows. Companies wondering how someone got inside when everything was locked, etc... it would completely change security practices. Pretty neat though when they figure out someone crawled in a skylight, across the ceiling and down the wall behind the cameras.

    Still I hope someone makes these, it'll start some new extreme sport craze... wall-ball or something. Whee!
    • ...It doesn't scale linearly. You would need a heck of a lot to stick a human to a wall.

      Melissa
      • It doesn't scale? I've pulled geckos off walls and stuff (even when they die of old age/etc they still stay stuck), and they sure stick pretty well, so given the surface area of a fair number of gecko feet, I'm not sure why that wouldn't hold up a human - at least a not too obese one (an obese tummy might get in the way of wall crawling too ;) ).
        • It might not scale for other reasons, but it DEFINITELY doesn't scale for the same reason any surface effect doesn't scale.

          We're going to make something 10x as long (which assumes a ~20 cm Gecko to get to man-sized, which I think is generous.)

          So the surface area of the giant-gecko feet are 100x bigger. (10^2 - because you have length and width) But the Gecko ways 1000x as much (lenght, width, depth) So for a 10x scaling factor in length, you have 10x more mass PER surface area - in other words you stick

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by TheLink (130905)
            "Irschick et al. (1996) showed that two front feet of a tokay gecko (Gekko gecko) produced 20.1 N of force parallel to the surface with 227 mm2 of pad area".

            So a pad area of 15mm x 15mm can hold about 2kg. So a pad area of 10cm x 10cm ( 4" x 4") should be able to hold about 90 to 100kg (200-220 pounds). Attaching four pads each of that area to a human doesn't seem like a big problem, and should provide a fair safety margin.

            That's of course assuming the synthetic gecko pad performs as well as the tokay's.

            As
    • That might not be so far off. A friend of mine has been working on something like that implemented with magnets, also based on the gecko's feet.

      There's a video showing the system here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rG8j1nFSss [youtube.com]

  • 1st of all this is not going to work for your average adult human.

    Why you might ask? Well I knew you would, well at least in your head.

    Besides sticking to things, you have to take into consideration basic human body mechanics. Yeah I know, reality is so pesky! Consider things that climb, and climb well. Lizards, Monkeys, insects, all the fauna in natures lovely wild kingdom. What do they all in common? Well, since you asked, and I knew you would, even if it was in your own head. Here is your answer

    • 1) I'm sure humans are adaptable and can figure things out- you don't have to fasten the sticky bits to the feet and hands y'know. Especially when humans are likely to want to have their hands and fingers free to manipulate stuff - opening/fixing stuff or answering the phone and checking email 100 metres up in the air ;).

      Also if the sticky bits are at the knee/shins and not the feet, you could hang by the forearm pads and then peel off+use the feet to jump at the same time. Harder to do that if the sticky b
      • Two words

        Knee
        Pads

        Brilliance like that is why we're still beating those superstrong gorillas. :)
  • Hello, Human Fly here! Come on, I spent all night dying my underwear.
  • this commercially viable synthetic gecko [adjab.com] has been around for years.

    • Geckoes are always growing. (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Geckoes continually "shed" the hair on their feet, and regrow new hairs. So any hairs that do happen to get extremely dirty are naturally discarded after some time, and replaced with newly-grown clean hairs.

    • See this post [slashdot.org], which answered another post asking nearly the exact same question as you.
      • His post wasn't there when I started typing mine.
        Good info.
        (though i don't think I needed to be down-modded.)
    • I was watching Futurama the other day, and Amy had on her Turquoise Reveal-O-Dress [geocities.com] I began to wonder how to put together a dress like this in this century. I was thinking of a fine mesh for the revealed parts, but if Geck-o-Tape becomes a reality, woohoo!, the fashion world will definitely change.

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