Many lizard such as gecko — not to bring up G of insects — have the remarkable power to climb up vertical surfaces with simplicity . The process has fascinated scientist for years , but a simple physics rule has go on big animals like citizenry out of the wall - scaling game . The solid cube law basically says that as objects , like animals , increase in size , their bulk grow at a much immobile rate than their surface surface area — specifically , if you feather a wight ’s control surface area , you must dice its volume so that its body can support its own exercising weight . This is why ants can carry more than elephant in ratio to their own weight and why small animals like geckos can more easily hold up themselves with small plot of adhesiveness .
A clearer understanding of the efficiency of a gecko ’s launch area gave scientist hope that a more intentionally design replica could stand human system of weights . However , these gecko - baseball glove would still have to overwhelm the exit of equally distributing a hanging human ’s weightiness so that no one pad was strained to the breaking point , set off a chain reaction that could break the total system .
A research team led by Stanford applied scientist Ethan Hawkes thinks they’vesolved this problem , publish a paper on their developments last week in theJournal of the Royal Society Interface . They’ve developed a dry - adhesive agent called PDMS microwedges that utilizes gecko - inspired , tomentum - alike nanofibers that flatten out out when get out downwardly against a surface and hold via electromagnetic attraction but are easily " undone " with a perpendicular tug .
The squad attached 24 stamp - sized roofing tile , each of which contained hundreds of thousand of microwedges , to octangular - shaped plates using groundbreaking springs . These springs are the key to overcoming the gecko ’s limitation . Unlike traditional springs , which become tenser as you pull them like a rubber band and do not distribute weight evenly , the springtime they used — made of a shape - retention alloy — exert less pressure as you pull them , like bubblegum or airheaded putty , and mete out weighting evenly , regardless of movement . The team estimates that the plate can support up to 200 pounds . To prove their capableness , Hawke himself climbed ( rather slowly ) up a glass wall .
