Photomontage of living gecko feet showing a variety of forms. Gecko feet employ very small subdivided filaments to bond with their substrates at the m

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Photomontage of living gecko feet showing a variety of forms. Gecko feet employ very small subdivided filaments to bond with their substrates at the molecular level using Van Der Waals' forces. Every square millimeter of a gecko's footpad contains about 14, 000 hairlike setae, each of which is tipped with between 100 and 1000 spatulae. If a single gecko had all spatuale engaged it could hypothetically hold a weight of 133kg. Their structure has inspired scientists such as Dr. Autumn Kellar to adapt the structure for robotic designs. Gecko feet have the property of being self-cleaning, very adhesive, but leaving no residue. The grip is so strong that geckos have to disengage their feet by curling their toes backwards, much like tape being peeled off glass. In this group the top right species is a ground Gecko which does not need sticky spatulae.

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Size: 3543px × 5294px
Photo credit: © PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: atomic, biodiversity, bioengineering, bonds, der, design, evolution, feet, foot, forces, gecko, molecular, robotics, setae, spatulae, van, variety, waals