All Articles Tagged As: geckos

Not slippery when wet: Geckos adhere to surfaces submerged underwater (4/13/2013)

Geckos are known for their sticky adhesive toes that allow them to stick to, climb on, and run along surfaces in any orientation -- even upside down! But until recently, it was not well understood how geckos kept their sticking ability even on wet surfaces, as are common in the tropical regions in which most geckos live. ...> Full Article

Scientists gain understanding of self-cleaning gecko foot hair (6/22/2012)

Wall-climbing robots, bioadhesives or other sticky substances can benefit greatly from a recent discovery about the self-cleaning and reuse abilities of a gecko's foot hair by a University of Akron graduate student-researcher and his partners. Their work was published in the June 13 edition of Interface, the journal of the Royal Society.The sticky yet clean attribute of this discovery is the gecko toe pad and its ability to repeatedly attach and detach to a surface. ...> Full Article

Scientists reach the heights with gecko-inspired tank robot (11/3/2011)

Researchers have developed a tank-like robot that has the ability to scale smooth walls, opening up a series of applications ranging from inspecting pipes, buildings, aircraft and nuclear power plants to deployment in search and rescue operations. ...> Full Article

When bird meets machine, bioinspired flight (11/25/2010)

Working at a crossroad between biology and engineering, scientists have modeled and are now mimicking the ingenious natural design of falling geckos, gliding snakes, cruising seagulls, flapping insects and floating maple seeds to improve the design of air vehicles. ...> Full Article

Humidity makes gecko feet stickier (10/16/2010)

Geckos have amazingly sticky feet. Their stickability comes from billions of dry microscopic hairs that coat the soles of their feet. However, when humidity increases, gecko feet stick even tighter to smooth surfaces, so how do they do it? Kellar Autumn and his colleagues have found that increased humidity softens the keratin that makes up the sticky foot-hairs, allowing them to deform and stick tighter to surfaces than hairs in dry conditions. ...> Full Article

Learning from lizards (9/22/2010)

Geckos are masters at sticking to surfaces of all kinds and easily unsticking themselves. Inspired by these lizards, a team of engineers has developed a reversible adhesion method for printing electronics on a variety of tricky surfaces such as clothes, plastic and leather. Designed by researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the stamp easily can pick up electronic devices from a silicon surface and print them on a curved surface. ...> Full Article

Secrets of the gecko foot help robot climb (8/27/2010)

The science behind gecko toes holds the answer to a dry adhesive that provides an ideal grip for robot feet. Stanford mechanical engineer Mark Cutkosky is using the new material, based on the structure of a gecko foot, to keep his robots climbing. ...> Full Article

Gecko's lessons transfer well (1/26/2010)

Rice graduate student Cary Pint has come up with a way to transfer forests of strongly aligned, single-walled carbon nanotubes from one surface to another -- any surface -- in a matter of minutes. The template used to grow the nanotubes, with its catalyst particles still intact, can be used repeatedly to grow more nanotubes, almost like inking a rubber stamp. ...> Full Article

New angle on gecko research (8/6/2009)

Scientists discover trigger that deploys geckos' amazing grip ...> Full Article

'Gecko vision': Key to the multifocal contact lens of the future? (5/8/2009)

Nocturnal geckos are among the very few living creatures able to see colors at night, and scientists' discovery of series of distinct concentric zones may lead to insight into better cameras and contact lenses. ...> Full Article

New gecko-like adhesive shakes off dirt (9/12/2008)

Researchers create first adhesive that cleans itself after each use without the need for water or chemicals, much like the remarkable hairs found on the gecko lizard's toes. ...> Full Article