Scientists Developing Commercially Viable Synthetic Gecko 122
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."
Surface Dust (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, all the Spiderman Wanna-be's read this first! (Score:2, Insightful)
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:
ALL of these creatures have equal length limbs!
Yes even or favorite relative, the chimpanzee. Also, in proportion to their size, they are all also endowed with vastly more muscle strength then humans. Ever seen your favorite monkey / gorilla play with a steel belted radial? They fling the thing around like we would a hula-hoop!
No not wanting to be a TOTAL kill-joy, I can see where humans could have lots of fun with this, but don't expect to see your average nerd/geek scaling a glass tower anytime soon. Our legs are way to long. Our arms are way to short and week in comparison to our legs and or climbing posture would be all wrong, with our asses hanging out into the breeze.
Being a pretty damn good rock climber myself, I can see some wonderful advantages I could have, but its not as great as everyone things its going to be. Gloves and shoes? Well that great and all, but you have to consider what is taking our full body weight. Good climbers, and I know some really good ones, can do one finger pull-ups, they are that strong, but a glove is going to exert the wrong kind of pressure/grip. Perhaps you might not slip, but you will have to keep your fingers curled over whatever you are using for a hand hold, and that still will lead to finger / hand fatigue that every climber experiences.
Perhaps a glove and shoe will be engineered that will evenly distribute the strain along the length of the forearm and the length and contours of the ankle and calf, but until then its going to still be a clumsy system that will put even more strain on our joints and limbs that already badly designed for climbing vertical surfaces.
Re:Really, it doesn't scale (Score:3, Insightful)
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 for surfaces not being able to hold your weight, that's what the brain is for
Note: Geckos have much better terminal velocity to "splat" velocity ratios than humans. That part of the scaling is more of a concern
Re:all true (Score:1, Insightful)