Geckos
Geckos
Slender, fast, unique, all these words seem to describe one animal, the gecko. A gecko is a very strange living creature that seems to amaze people by the way they are able to move up and down steep slopes such as a building. The question is though, how is it even possible for anything to climb up and down walls? Scientist has wondered for many years what keeps gravity from forcing these creatures down to the ground. Hypotheses as bizarre as friction, electrostatic attraction, suction, and even glue have all been considered for possible features of the gecko’s feet. After many different tests, Kellar Autumn of Lewis and Clark College of Portland, Oregon and Robert Full of the University of California, Berkley, finally came to the conclusion that a gecko’s feet is made of a tiny, hair like structure called setae. Each foot on a gecko could consist of up to 400-1000 setae. Although they have so many setaes, there are some surfaces they have trouble holding on to. This is due to low-energy surfaces. They stick better to surfaces that have polar molecules in it. In order to see exactly how the setaes stick to surfaces, Kellar and Full had to go head on with many difficult challenges, and done many different test that no one had ever accomplished. To begin the test, they first surgically removed a single setae, and fitted it to a special micromanipulator that helped Kellar and Full see the setaes at many different angles. In order to measure the force of a single setae, they asked an engineer from Stanford, Thomas Kenny, to help them build an instrument that could measure forces at the atomic level accurately. They come to the conclusion that the force behind a single setae would produce a shocking 20 microNewtrons of force. The next test Kellar and Full conducted was the sliding step experiment. This was conducted by forcing a setae perpendicularly to enable the sensor and giving it a slight parallel pull. In time, the force increased to 60 microNewtrons.
Slender, fast, unique, all these words seem to describe one animal, the gecko. A gecko is a very strange living creature that seems to amaze people by the way they are able to move up and down steep slopes such as a building. The question is though, how is it even possible for anything to climb up and down walls? Scientist has wondered for many years what keeps gravity from forcing these creatures down to the ground. Hypotheses as bizarre as friction, electrostatic attraction, suction, and even glue have all been considered for possible features of the gecko’s feet. After many different tests, Kellar Autumn of Lewis and Clark College of Portland, Oregon and Robert Full of the University of California, Berkley, finally came to the conclusion that a gecko’s feet is made of a tiny, hair like structure called setae. Each foot on a gecko could consist of up to 400-1000 setae. Although they have so many setaes, there are some surfaces they have trouble holding on to. This is due to low-energy surfaces. They stick better to surfaces that have polar molecules in it. In order to see exactly how the setaes stick to surfaces, Kellar and Full had to go head on with many difficult challenges, and done many different test that no one had ever accomplished. To begin the test, they first surgically removed a single setae, and fitted it to a special micromanipulator that helped Kellar and Full see the setaes at many different angles. In order to measure the force of a single setae, they asked an engineer from Stanford, Thomas Kenny, to help them build an instrument that could measure forces at the atomic level accurately. They come to the conclusion that the force behind a single setae would produce a shocking 20 microNewtrons of force. The next test Kellar and Full conducted was the sliding step experiment. This was conducted by forcing a setae perpendicularly to enable the sensor and giving it a slight parallel pull. In time, the force increased to 60 microNewtrons.