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From: "Jim Whitehead" <ejw@cse.ucsc.edu>
To: "FoRK" <FoRK@xent.com>
Subject: RE: Gecko adhesion finally sussed.
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Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 10:34:04 -0700

Great, this is half of what I'd need to become Spider Man! Now all I need to
figure out is how to do that spider web shooting thing.

- Jim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: fork-admin@xent.com [mailto:fork-admin@xent.com]On Behalf Of
> Eirikur Hallgrimsson
> Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 10:24 PM
> To: FoRK
> Subject: Gecko adhesion finally sussed.
>
>
> (Via Robot Wisdom)   Maybe you UC folk know these people?
>
> http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/lcc-sph082202.php
>
> Working at Lewis & Clark College, the University of California at
> Berkeley,
> the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Stanford University,
> the interdisciplinary team:
>
>     * confirmed speculation that the gecko's amazing climbing ability
> depends on weak molecular attractive forces called van der Waals forces,
>
>     * rejected a competing model based on the adhesion chemistry of water
> molecules, and
>
> * discovered that the gecko's adhesive depends on geometry, not surface
> chemistry. In other words, the size and shape of the tips of gecko foot
> hairs--not what they are made of--determine the gecko's stickiness.
>
> To verify its experimental and theoretical results, the gecko group then
> used its new data to fabricate prototype synthetic foot-hair tips
> from two
> different materials.
>
> "Both artificial setal tips stuck as predicted," notes Autumn, assistant
> professor of biology at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore. "Our
> initial prototypes open the door to manufacturing the first biologically
> inspired dry, adhesive microstructures, which can have widespread
> applications."


