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Gecko-grip material aims to be the end of glue
NewScientist.com news service ^
| 09 Oct 2008
| Jessica Griggs
Posted on 10/10/2008 8:23:32 AM PDT by BGHater
Geckos have long inspired scientists and super-hero fans alike with their ability to scamper up vertical walls and cling to ceilings with a single toe. In recent years, people have attempted to create materials that match those spectacular abilities, in the hope of creating new advanced adhesives, or even car braking systems.
Now US chemists claim to have made one based on nanotubes that it is 10 times stickier than some gecko feet. Even more impressively, like a real gecko foot, it can also be easily unstuck with a tug in the right direction.
Gecko's superhero toes are covered in microscopic hairs, known as setae, with even smaller branches at the tips, called spatulae.
These ensure that a gecko's foot has a large surface area in contact with any surface, maximising the weak but ever-present attraction between adjacent molecules known as the van der Waals force.
![](http://technology.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn14902/dn14902-1_492.jpg)
A close of up the structures on a gecko's foot, compared with the nanotubes that make up a synthetic mimic that is even stickier than the real thing (Image: Science)
(Excerpt) Read more at technology.newscientist.com ...
TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: chemistry; gecko; glue; nano
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To: Hacklehead
At least he would stick on the hood of the car.
21
posted on
10/10/2008 9:01:19 AM PDT
by
BGHater
(The GOP, the new DNC.)
To: Lazamataz
Welcome back, Laz...
Missed your witty posts...:)
22
posted on
10/10/2008 9:03:23 AM PDT
by
rlmorel
(Who is Saul Alinsky and why is Barack Obama a disciple of his methods?)
To: wbill
"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 of the substance." A well placed telephone pole will stop a car in an even shorter distance than that.
23
posted on
10/10/2008 9:04:22 AM PDT
by
Joe 6-pack
(Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
To: Lazamataz
I cant seem to leave this article. So, how'd you leave the joint you just busted out of? Hacksaw, gun whittled out of soap, shiv to the guards throat thence into the waiting helicopter?
24
posted on
10/10/2008 9:06:57 AM PDT
by
BOBTHENAILER
(One by one, in small groups or in whole armies, we don't care how we do it, but we're gonna getcha)
To: KarlInOhio
>>Nothing like a 5 G deceleration to get your attention. Better make the seat belts a lot stronger.
The seatbelts? Hell, better make sure the suspension is securely fastened to the frame.
I’m thinking of a certain scene in American Graffiti involving a cop car and a steel cable.
25
posted on
10/10/2008 9:09:53 AM PDT
by
RobRoy
(This is comical)
To: wbill
Hit the brakes with these babies and, without hitting anything, your car looks like an accordion. With you somewhere inside.
26
posted on
10/10/2008 9:11:02 AM PDT
by
RobRoy
(This is comical)
To: Hacklehead
Unfortunately an unbelted driver will be propelled through the windshield and onto the hood of the car.
Not if the driver too was using gecko adhesive to keep him "glued" to his seat.
(I know, the next question is, "how does the driver get out of the vehicle if he's stuck to the seat?" Well, he'd have to "pull" in the right direction in order to get "unstuck". It's a fail-safe adhesive.)
27
posted on
10/10/2008 9:15:05 AM PDT
by
adorno
To: adorno
Not if the driver too was using gecko adhesive to keep him "glued" to his seat.So only a few of his internal organs reach the windshield?
28
posted on
10/10/2008 9:33:42 AM PDT
by
SC Swamp Fox
(Join our Folding@Home team (Team# 36120) keyword: folding)
To: SC Swamp Fox
So only a few of his internal organs reach the windshield?
I wonder, does that happen now with seatbelts and with airbags? They basically keep you stationary right now, while, I guess, according to you, the internal organs reach the windshield?
BTW, my post was mostly in jest regarding keeping the driver "glued" to his seat.
29
posted on
10/10/2008 9:39:19 AM PDT
by
adorno
To: BGHater
Things are moving quickly. They just figured out how a gecko does this a few years ago.
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