• Question from:grayarea

Where I live we often seen lizards climbing up the windows in the evenings. How do they do this? Is it suction, sticky substance or electromechanical force or something else altogether?

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  • School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
  • Posts: 306

There was a recent study on the stickiness of gecko toe pads. Gecko toe pads are sticky because they have very fine structures on the nanometer scale that act as what's called a smart adhesive. Gecko toe pads are covered with millions of microscopic shafts that somewhat resemble fine brushes. The very tips of these shafts can stick to surfaces with so little force. Put together millions of these and the combined stickiness is strong enough to allow geckos to cling to even the smoothest surfaces like glass.

Last edited by Manabu Sakamoto (16th Mar 2007 16:23:58)