Thanks so much to Derek and team for visiting our lab! This was a great video on our gecko-inspired adhesives, and the best explanation yet of Van der Waals forces.
@Tobi - in a way our tires today mimic the metaphor in the video of the sports shoe with sticky material under it that costs serious energy to break away from the surface it is on. Our tires are closer to post-it notes than gecko skin. As you suggest a gecko skin tyre's "traction" may get even better but I would say the reduction of losses to stickiness would be more important - better traction with less rolling resistance.
@Zuchtsau Yeah it got me thinking of electrostatic discharge. They would basically need it to stop such that when it grew to a specific height it branched making it so you had millions of tiny hairs all fractal like and roughly being the same height. Idk exactly how one would solve such a problem right off hand though. Perhaps pulling down into an oil or something idk.
Is there a breakdown point due to mechanical fatigue such that over time it stopped working? I have an idea for a motor using this tape and ultrasound such that you could delicately move objects as they would only slide one direction under the influence of soundwaves.
Hello Derek, I have an idea for a video. In chemistry, I learned that in redox reactions, electrons transfer, but it was never quite explained how or why exactly they do it. I would love a video about this process, which I found out is explained using quantum mechanics. That way, I might finally understand how the electrochemical potential table forms and why different organisms are an-/aerobic on a deeper level. If you (not Derek) read this and also wonder how this works, I would appreciate if you could give this comment a push so that Derek sees it. Thanks, keep up the good work, and greetings from Switzerland. Alejandro
@Alejandro Escalera Ok since you don't have a discord or anything let's talk about this here. First of all, i looked into this topic when I was first interested in the use of quantum mechanics in Birds navigation (how Bird brains use quantum mechanics in identifying geographic magnetic poles, it's a fascinating topic which you can look up, there's an interesting lecture on this on BRvid titled"Quantum Biology" by The Royal Institution ). As far as your topic is concerned, you are talking about use of quantum mechanics in general chemical reactions which is in part to the subject related to quantum biology as most of our body reaction use complex quantum mechanics topics which I have no idea about.
I can see a lot of applications for this stuff. Mountain climbers would love this when you’re just starting, builders would find this useful when trying to set up a safety line, heck I can even envisioning spec ops use these as well. Not only that, think of all the possibilities for that stuff.
Hey, if anyone is reading this comment, it would mean the world to me if we can get Derek to make a video on the Nobel Prize winners! I believe it was on quantum entanglement ( Which I am sure Derek has done a video in the past about) but to get a new refresher on that type of content with the way Derek explains things would be absolutely amazing!!! I cant do this without people liking this comment so PLEASE ITS UP TO YOU! Imagine the animations! Imagine the explanations! We love you!
I LOVE that you've published this. My nine year old has started a new theme at school this month, called biomimicry... I'm going to show this video to her; she'll love it.
This is really cool, I remember about 5 years ago I was touring UMass Amherst where they have a Geckskin lab. They used kevlar or carbon fiber backing with polyurethane or PDMS as the polymer for gripping the surface. It was super cool to see in action and I didn't know other universities were doing similar things
Would love to see you try to climb with that. I've heard of the attempt or idea at least of using the principle of how Geckos climb many years ago, but no one really knew how it worked as you mentioned so I'm really happy to see such a big step forward not only in the understanding but also application of this principle that was a mystery and challenge for so long.
Follow up to my comment about my grandfather, I sent him this video and he sent me this back 😀 "Thanks I traveled to Brownsville, Texas to collect specimens off the glass walls of the airport terminal building. This was the point of entry into the US probably on imported fruit. We examined the toe of one under a microscope. So I knew of the toe pads in 1967 but did not have the Knowledge of how Van derwald forces worked here. It all makes perfect sense. When you pry one off the glass you had to push it toward its tail and it would just fall off."
@Blobbyo25 the correct term is survival instinct and evolution working as expected, not an omnipresent being who just wanks while watching us to teach us a lesson
It’s crazy how complex technology exists within nature. It’s like a talk I’ve heard once from reading an article once on how anti gravity is what causes a scarab beetle to fly. Scientifically, It’s body is too heavy for the wings to support that much weight. But it still flies somehow. Nature is crazy.
You got me standing in awe with just the fact that the non-sticky tape sticks to surfaces depending on its orientation and holds very well judging by the objects you were hanging. Absolutely mind-boggling. There has to be a caveat for wide range use, hasn't there? If not, this will be perhaps the number one future technology. In my eyes it will be one of those turning points where you can reminisce how you saw history change in your lifetime.
@comicus01 problem: hard to manufacture known information: gecko has better version solution: put gecko on the bottom of robot feet or hands as grippers
Yes there's a couple of caveats: it only sticks to something smooth, not rough, just as our fingers won't stick to glass, this probably won't stick to our fingers. I was impressed that one shot showed a robot on what appeared to be a brick wall, so maybe I'm wrong? I would hop so. 2nd caveat: it's very difficult to manufacture. Which they showed. I'm wondering if it would be more practical to simply raise geckos for their feet. Not nice to geckos, but hopefully they can also find a more efficient way to manufacture this gecko tape.
You could use multiple directions in the structure to make it strong in shear on multiple axis, but there's no way to make it strong on the normal axis, though I guess you could always combine it with suction to get the forces going in the first place.
I hope one day this technology is adapted as plasters/medical tape. My newborn requires an NG tube for feeding and we have to tape it to his cheek, but he is allergic to adhesive and we are now in a battle over managing his poor skin degrading. It makes me happy to think how future families in similar situations could benefit from this concept.
When I was between 8-10ish, I got a children’s science magazine and I clearly remember it talking about how someday there would be self-healing plastic, and how we’d be able to print physical objects, and how a material was being developed that could protect a rose from a blowtorch with just a thin layer. Now, about 20 years later, if I bought a piece of aerogel (which is amazingly something one can do for about $50), I would have all three of those inventions in my home.
You know what’s crazy, despite how awesome this technology is it’s still very rudimentary, especially when compared to actual gecko feet. I can see this technology progressing over this next decade to the point where there’s gecko shoes that can easily support the weight of a human
@TheNewGreenIsBlue Funny as hell how you’ll spend so much time defending the idea of an ultimate creator / a god to people on the internet 😭. You’re arguments have zero impact here. Go preach somewhere where it might make a difference or maybe uplift peoples spirits, not on youtube just to boast about your “superior understanding”. And besides, how can anyone know anything for certain at all?
@bragesb I think you missed the point. Life on this planet is far more complex and there are countless interdependent processes and systems that baffle really smart people that struggle to fit the facts into their narrative. A reasonable person doesn't look at the sculpture and in the absence of a visible sculptor look for some evidence that a series of beneficial actions just... happened to eventually sculpt the castle... and that's just a simple castle which is really NOTHING compared to the simplest of life forms... or a tree... or even a flower. It's evident that there had to be a sculptor... Perhaps you've heard of the infinite monkeys on typewriters being able to write shakespeare... turns out: "If there were as many monkeys as there are atoms in the observable universe typing extremely fast for trillions of times the life of the universe, the probability of the monkeys replicating even a single page of Shakespeare is unfathomably small." You can't look at a single beneficial mutation without looking at the system. Mathematically, random mutation, particularly if it was truly random and not built in such a way as to survive (probably smart if you built an environment as hostile to life as the universe) is... frankly... not mathematically possible. I know, it's hard to go against what we were taught in school... we see people who are smart who believe it and so we don't analyze the evidence ourself... we just assume that others must have done the critical analysis... but, many of my colleagues just... well haven't.
@TheNewGreenIsBlue What benefit is it to the sand to be shaped like that, and how does it propagate that shape so it's not gone forever the next time the surf washes it away? If those questions don't have answers I don't think your analogy holds much water.
@Itta Pupu I've added enough, itta pupu. You're of course free to believe whatever you wish, whether the evidence supports it or not. Even If you direct your question at the researcher in this video... he'd probably wouldn't have a satisfying answer to your question... unless you're satisfied with a hand-wavingly answer. You have avoided the questions that I asked, though. Perhaps because the answer is obvious. Take that however you like.
@TheNewGreenIsBlue Nice job talking in circles without answering my question. Do you actually have anything to add to the conversation or do you only deal in banal drivel?
@Sean Callahan There is no argument, we're just having a conversation and you are the one that initiated the conversation so if you didn't come here to talk about God, stop replying to me. Maybe once the powers that be require everyone in the world to take a mark in order to buy food you'll believe...Coming very soon. Don't take it. Revelation 14:11 KJV And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
@Jesus is God, Look man, You can quote a book written by goat herders and then adopted by the authorities to manipulate the masses with fear all you want. I’m not buying it. If you want to believe in such things and are genuinely a good person, more power to ya. I didn’t come here for an argument about religion. Fair enough?
@Sean Callahan You are thinking in a physical sense. When Jesus says the Father He speaks in a spiritual sense. Just as we have a body, soul and spirit there is God the soul, Jesus the body and the Holy Ghost the spirit. Jesus is the Word and the Word is God. John 1:1 KJV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:14 KJV And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 1 John 5:7 KJV For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. Matthew 1:23 KJV Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
I believe it is by design. Something cannot come from nothing, and intelligence does not come from ultimately unintelligent processes. To believe so would require a larger leap of faith than intelligent design. We see things designed every day and intuitively understand that someone made it. Why do we resist that idea when God is brought into the picture? It isn't only a debate about the science; it is also a heart problem. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." -Romans 1:18-20
that stuff is amazing. great combination of surface physics chemistry and mechanics all inspired by nature. Would be very interesting to see if we couldn't 'grow' something similar to the tiny fibrils the gecko's feet use.
I have been working on similar projects for about a year and a half now mainly to stick things to other things in the pharmaceutical industry, so that we don’t use adhesive. My solution to making the exact copy of a gecko feet is to actually use silicone to mold a negative of actual gecko feet. And then a copy and edit paste until you have a surface that is large enough that you can create a metallic mold. Because there is no solution to making something that small other than nature itself. For example, bacteria have tiny, small little hairs that we could never manufacture, but we could copy it off of a bacteria.
Scientists seem to be relatively close to developing the ability to manipulate genomes enough to custom-build cells. So maybe, in near future, can program cellular "factories" to grow useful amounts of these nanostructures instead?
Thanks so much to Derek and team for visiting our lab! This was a great video on our gecko-inspired adhesives, and the best explanation yet of Van der Waals forces.
The most interesting part is the clever combination of the gecko pads with the usage of bending mechanisms or the force transfer to the feets of the climber. Although... It does not look very safe to use. A gecko actually has a terminal velocity that lets him survive a free fall. A human rather not. For use in robotic manipulators, however, where an accidental loss of a piece is not an apocalypse, this looks astonishingly useful.
My grandfather has a PhD in zoology and biology. I'll never forget the day when he showed me a scientific journal entry with a picture of this and how fascinating they were to him. He is an ichthyologist, so it wasn't his area of expertise; however, there were always some facts he could add to a situation or story, and how he described that truly humbled me at the time and still does. I credit my grandfather for my curiosity and thank creators like you for making me extremely proud of him, highlighting fascinating things in our universe, and invigorating those who are hungry for more knowledge. Thank you.
@HE’S coming soon I'll say this to you too. Inserting religion into an unrelated conversation is precisely the way to make people less likely to accept what you said. It's a situation of "nobody asked," and if you want to spread your religion, go to somewhere that actually wants to discuss religion, spirituality, and the possibilites of the supernatural. Be smart if you're really trying to "do God's work."
@ConservativeRiot Inserting religion into an unrelated conversation is precisely the way to make people less likely to accept what you said. It's a situation of "nobody asked," and if you really want to spread your religion, go to somewhere that actually wants to discuss religion, spirituality, and the possibilites of the supernatural. Be smart if you're really trying to "do God's work."
@ConservativeRiot signs, schmaigns. Isn't jeezbuz your best buddy in the whole world, whom you speak with on a regular basis? Then just ask him when he comes.
What would happen if the same technology would be used in car tires, specifically for drag racing where the movement is in one direction (mostly)? Could it increase the grip of the tires and as a result improve the car's capability of launching forward?
One should always drape something over a winch cable, under tension. Granted, there wasn't much tension in play simply tugging a car on a level surface, but, still...
This is mind-blowing. The fact that geckos use Van der Waals force that works at an atomic scale, for sticking to surfaces is really amazing. Hands down this is one of the best science channels on youtube.
I have heard of Gecko tape for years and YEA I could have searched it but by the time I got around to it I had forgotten about it. Then you stepped in and said This guy needs to hear about it and made this video and to that I say thank you :) But seriously I have always wondered about it but for some reason I never researched it.. going to have to make notes and then actually do the searches :) This stuff is wild.. I would say after what I seen There is no way to hang from a ceiling ??? (unless you use the pulled in force like the 3 or 4 finger gripper. )
I appreciate the higher atomic physics, and the general application, but... another way of looking at this material and phenomena is a mixture of tensile and compression force, not unlike those experienced by an airplane wing. In fact, i notice the bending ridges resemble the latter quite closely. The tape forms a 'ring' of tensile pressure on the tomato, and the tomato skin attempts to resist and forms an expanding compression force. This creates a ton of friction, and similar to a top, is centered around the moment of inertia (Pls correct me if I use the wrong term. I'm not used to sharing my thoughts.) or the draw string. Geckos likely counter this by using the stabilization in their limbs to counteract the natural contours of a surface, even one as fine as glass. They maintain a second layer of torque in their body which they can use like a gyroscope so that they can control the angle of their limbs and sustain the cycle. From there, the nuclear force (still loose on the specific names, sry.) is enough to suspend the moment into the flesh (or tape) and glass. Counter spins that sandwich the glass and gecko skin together. Dang, oversimplified. I almost make it sound like geckos are developing extra dimensional storage or something.
It would be useful to know how long this stuff lasts. I can imagine the surfaces getting clogged with dust particles thus rendering it useless. What about wear and tear, cleaning and maintenance? I guess this was omitted because it does not last usefully long enough to be of any practical use. Still, a worthy video to watch till the end.
I _LOVE_ that you've published this. My nine year old has started a new theme at school this month, called biomimicry... I'm going to show this video to her; she'll love it.
@AtBZ 🧤 Because if that was my child, I'd be proud of my child. And want to make them happier. And share the happiness with others, because the world is a slightly better place having known.
@6th Wilbury 9-year olds are very often interested in biomimicry. How could you not be? It's adults that take the amazing designs around us for granted... maybe because they were taught to just blow it off as a product of random accidents.
@AtBZ 🧤 No kidding. My kids had a unit on biomimicry as well. It's pretty much a standard thing that they teach in elementary school these days. I have helped BOTH my daughters still in regular old public elementary schools do projects on the amazing designs of the world around us. Everything from the remarkable strength to weight ratio of the Toucan's beak, to the kingfisher's beak's inspiration for Japan's bullet trains. Intelligent humans design things around them all the time... and although generally far inferior to the the natural designs around us, still impressive and starts with curiosity.
@Applied Science did an excellent DIY version of this a few years back. Seeing the car being pulled by the tape looks very impressive. I'm wondering how meaningful that demonstration is, since a car is designed to move with low friction. I assume the static and dynamic friction was the major force holding it in place, since it wasn't moving very fast intertia probably didn't play a large factor. What sorts of forces did it pull?
Wouldn't the metal Gauge blocks stick together due to metallic bonds, not Van der Waals? I'd think rubbing them together damages the thin oxide layer, allowing for partial metal on metal contact and, thus, metallic bonds can form (i.e. cold welding). Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Oh wow! MASSIVE thanks to Prof. Mark Cutkosky & you, Veritasium! This is honestly epic stuff. Love what we can (and have) learn(ed) from nature and other living creatures! :)
When I first played Call of Duty: Black Ops II, I thought the Nano Gloves that were use to stick to the sides of cliffs were cool, but that surely they couldn't exist anywhere near as early as 2025. I now think (and hope) they may be possible in the somewhat near future lol
This is so beautiful! I know it’s stupid but I was crying and smiling watching this. Science, art and philosophy, to me, are the greatest examples of how fantastically amazing we humans can be. When we want to. Thanks for the video. It made my day!
This gecko adhesive is incredible. It literally looks like magic and like it breaks the laws of physics by making use of quantum phenomenon that we rarely experience in everyday life.
Knowing nothing going in, I definitely did not expect the mechanism to be something on the atomic level. Super, super cool, and really demonstrates how much more there is to the world than the everyday experience we have of it!
This exact effect was the reason I studied materials science in my masters. It's just incredible how far we have come, that we are able to use such effects on materials that *.*
@Sean Kane as they say in the video, what they can do is a very raw bad approx of what a gecko can. I would say they do not more than a mere 5-10% (i am being optimistic) and so, the possibilities are HUGE. We need to learn how to build something purely from a DNA.. like a cell does. Crispr is great to modify DNA, but to have a sheet of "gecko foot" made from the Gecko DNA (and then even improving it!) is pure science fiction nowadays. Having this capability will open the "God door" with unimaginable possibilities. We are so so far from that (50 years?)
@Enorazza Right? I'm so curious how much better is the gecko than the artificial version, considering we seem to be able to fill the same surface area. Is it something like 80% as good, 95% as good? What if it were like half as good as the gecko? Crazy to think of the possibilities were that the case and we just need to iterate on the processes
@hades I'd imagine so if the vinyl sheets mentioned use this force, but I have noticed some that are noticeably sticky one one side so perhaps some indeed use a thin adhesive in some fashion
I remember learning about the science of gecko feet when watching Wild Kratts in kindergarten. So surprised and happy to see it pop up on Dr.Muller's channel again!
I had a Gecko growing up and I was wondering what to name him and he was just sticking there on the side and I was checking out his cute little toes. It was instant really as soon as I looked at them, his name was Toes and lived a very long and healthy live of many crickets and critters.
No wonder a mere "geek science" channel has 13.3M subscribers. The wonders are a scientist/s were smart enough to figure this out as well as realise real world applications for it. The other is that nature never stops teaching. Endlessly fascinating. Thank you.
Could this be used on tires to give better traction on conditions like heavy rain? Instead of like ur tape where u have the sheer force needed toward each other u inverse that so as the tire squishes against ground from weight of vehicle it pushes the small fingers out giving additional traction it otherwise wouldn't of had.
Definitely want a gecko suit now. On another thought, could tires be made of this stuff? I'd be interested in seeing how long the tread would last, or if pavement is just too rough for it to work at all.
I think it’s amazing how much utility this can have there commercial scale robots to pull stuff but also can be a consumer product like a product to hand stuff
Ya know… I’m sitting here again marveling at the fact that this is one of the only channels that continues to spontaneously make me say some exclamation out loud when something is explained. ❤
The original business model of BRvid was annoying, but at least the ads were reasonable. New flood of invasive, repetitive, and offensive ads are EVIL. Google is now fully dedicated to doing any evil that seems profitable. And censoring complaints, too.
Hey, can you make a video explaining how astronomers calculate the movement of a celestial body. Especially the orbits, velocity, the position at certain time. I am very interested in this. 😄 🪐
I remember I had a heated discussion with my father because he wouldn't believe gekos didn't have "suckers" in their feet to climb glass. It took a week of images and explanatio convincing him. This is perfect and will sum up everything. Awesome video.
La naturaleza una vez más le demuestra a la humanidad, la perfección de sus mecanismos que fueron pulidos durante millones de años. Solo de esa manera la humanidad será capaz de avanzar tecnológicamente. La innovación está allí, solo que no hemos sido capaces de entenderla en un totalidad.
"Let me know if you want me to climb a building with gekko tape" Derek, we've all been 12 before. We *all* want to climb a building with gekko tape too. No need to beat around the bush here. You have our full permission, man. Also bring a pro climber or gymnast with insane upper body strength (I think a rings gymnast would be best) as I bet they can do some absolutely bonkers stuff with this and a glass wall.
Thanks for a very informative video. The Gecko tape was tested on the ISS, I wonder what properties were demonstrated in zero g that could not be discovered in 1g?
the coolest thing was i was able to predict how the gecko tape would look like but not because i knew how geckos stuck to walls but rather drawing parallels to the newspaper breaking a ruler demonstration
Thank you for showing this tech, i always wanted to know insects, geckos climb and build projects like that, I researched but everyone talked about only Suction cu which is not always helpful.. This is really informative and useful!
One question I came away with is: are the Gecko toes directional like the artificial material, or is their structure so fine that they don't need to flatten in order to stick?
@N C If you don't mind me saying, that is an entirely unsafe conclusion. I can understand how you might categorise individuals as being creative or precise, without realising that some are both. One never quite knows who is contributing to these threads.. but thanks for your comment.
@andrew cobb If you need to focus that hard on a missing apostrophe, it's safe to say 'combing for arbitrary missed characters in comment sections' might be your skill set, whereas mine is more 'having thoughts and knowing things.'
@N C we're not the experts in this matter so our deal is to assume. You can not make conclusions from the photo either. So you are assuming things too. Am I wrong?
I remember people telling me gecko tape would NEVER be possible, even the guy inventing this tape says so, but he still persisted and they developed something that comes pretty close to it. This is amazing! Another dream come true
@notahotshot Given I actively factored communication out of that statement, I'm definitely not confusing the two. Only the first point I made was about ease of communication. My second statement - the one you quoted - was not about communication. Plus precision doesn't come from standardization; ease of communication does, which you supposedly think has nothing to do with precision. On top of which, you're mis-attributing the word nomenclature. What you call the measurements is irrelevant to how the system works or which values are used for scaling. The odd nomenclature doesn't reinforce or dissolve either of our points, so I don't see why you feel the need to remind me of it. As for the creation of the metric system - people make new systems because it's easier to get people to bandwagon onto a new thing than it is to change how they use an old thing. I'm aware that it had nothing to do with precision at the time, which is why I didn't make that argument. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that metric - as we know it today - is less precise. The reason Imperial is naturally less precise is because every unit has it's an individual scalar value. Every time you have to translate between those scales, there's a risk of a translation error, which grows exponentially every time you switch unit. And that's not a communication thing - that's a maths thing. The same risk holds true for digital computation. You're clearly stuck on the idea of minutiae aspect of precision rather than accuracy, and if you want to say that the thou is more precise than a millimetre, then I'd agree (before reminding you of nanometres and all the other units smaller than 0.1 thou), but the Imperial system *as a whole* is imprecise when compared to the metric system *as a whole.*
@Samurai Pipotchi "That's naturally more precise." No, it's not. You're confusing ease of communication with precision within the system. Precision comes from standardization, and from how finely divided your measurements are, not how you name them. I can divide imperial measurements just as finely as you can divide metric. The issue with imperial was that the length of the measurements were not standardized. Rather than getting everyone to agree on how to define the length of a yard, a new measurement, the meter, was devised, and the base measurement defined. Then the measurement was later redefined multiple times. Because of the natural inaccuracy of the definitions used. The world could have just as easily standardized on imperial, if an agreement on how to define the measurements could have been reached. Note that I did say, in my previous comment, that the nomenclature could have been better.
@notahotshot Because it's true for a lot of us. I'm in the UK. Our tools use mm adjustments - just like almost every non-english speaking country. Trying to describe which metric adjustment you need while using imperial terms is going to lead to a natural imprecision. There's also the benefit that metric technically only has one unit of measurement and the terminology just specifies where we're putting the decimal place. That's naturally a more precise system than one that changes it's scaling based on which unit you're using.
@Samurai Pipotchi "Metric is necessary when it comes to precision measurements..." Why do people make this claim? I can divide imperial measurements in as fine an increment as needed to get as accurate a measurement as required. The nomenclature could have been better for the divisions, but the nomenclature has no effect on the level of accuracy possible.
Dude, this is awesome! So many applications! First thought is, let's say you're climbing on a tank or something. Instead of finding an anchor point or worrying about non-slip soles, you could literally just apply it to the surface of the tank! Mobile anchor point! As a tech I want to mess with this so bad!
I LOVE that you've published this. My nine year old has started a new theme at school this month, called biomimicry... I'm going to show this video to her; she'll love it.
Years on after leaving school and I am continuously impressed by the quality of the content you provide for free that far exceeds most institutions. It’s just amazing how simply you explain concepts in a quarter of an hour.
Such intricacy on a micro level is mind blowing, and amazingly it is all by design. The amount of times I’ve heard scientists believe in God because of these factors is wonderful. God’s power and attention to detail is so beyond human understanding, praise The Lord!
The first min i had a guess for an image of how this works exactly in my brain. I was happy watching the video because i was literally spot on 100% 😂 maybe i am a gecko after all 😅
I remember in one of my nanotechnology courses at university around 2012 one of the physics lecturers told us about people investigating this sort of technology. Amazing to see it in action.
✝️ LORD JESUS DIED & ROSE AGAIN TO PAY THE DEBT OF UR SIN! ✅By Faith in the sacrifice God has made are we saved from the penalty of sin! 🔵Turn from your sin that leads to death & accept His Gift that leads to eternal Life! 💜We are all sinners that need God. No one can say they are perfect to be able to pay their debt of sin. This is why only God could pay the penalty for us, that is merciful Love!
Kinda shows how University can have a place, but it ends up being a fraction of our lives in many cases. Uni didn't really say we'd move on and never need them, for reasons.
I can imgaine this being on regular "better quality" work gloves in a decade or two, it would very useful for most professions and significantly improve safety, for some applications it could be a gamechanger
I'm surprised how creative the team got when manufacturing the material/characterizing the force. I thought it would be closer to the methods of silicon etching and nanostructure growing
@hazonku I suspect a metal mold will not release the silicone without micro-tears of the tiny ridges which will ruin the gripping properties. And at the tiny scale they are working in prohibits using a mold release agent which would take too much space. I think the main draw of using wax is that it will easily release and separate from the silicone once cured
this could be used for gloves or finger tip pads for prosthetics, it would be great for turning pages of a book/magazine, and gripping delicate things.
Imagine a gecko suit. (Where the palms and feet) are covered in heck adhesive (you’d use gecko feet to help you support your whole body weight but you’d get some training with a safety net in a safe area before actually scaling buildings first of course)
can you make gloves out of them and attempt to hold your weight on a wall? im assuming the math for surface area needed is more than just finger tips and palms so i doubt it would work but it would be interesting to see what sort of slippery things one could or could not pick up with this odd directional gekko copy
Yes, Derek. I do want to see you climb something using gecko socks. One question, regardless of how strong the grip is, the material it's made of has to be strong enough to with stand the weight of what it's pulling doesn't it? So what are those strips made of that can withstand the weight of a car between just 4 of them?
You could do the same thing with regular duct tape, since there's not a lot of force involved, but the op provides a valid point. If one were to use this for lifting any meaningful amount of weight, the material will need to be far stronger.
Keep in mind the idea that the tape is “pulling” the weight of car is a little misleading. It’s not like the tape needs to hold the weight of a 3000lb sedan. All you need to do to pull a car on flat ground is to overcome the rolling resistance of the car while it is in neutral. For a 3000lbs sedan that might be something like 50-100lbs. This is an amount of force humans can easily provide hence why you’ll see people pushing their car when stuck or out of gas.
Les bandelettes n'ont pas à supporter le poids de la voiture mais la force de traction et elles sont plusieurs pour se partager cette force donc elles n'ont pas besoin d'être très solide.
Ah yes, the Gecko EVOLVED to do that XD With all our technology we are able to only make a crude imitation of this tiny creature’s amazing powers. The idea this thing just evolved to do that is ridiculous
wow amazing, I love geckoes, they had to bring themselves up with no parental guidance, maybe that is why they can climb and walk up walls, upside down on ceilings, nobody told them they couldn't....when I say parental guidance, I mean material of course, geckoes show me that our Creator is a genius....the King of Science, GOD
When I was in School, about 15 years ago, we had this book "Geko's Foot" in our library, it was full of how amazing and fascinating the Geko's foot was! The ideas discussed in the book are now a reality! Science does make progress!
@Robert Pruitt I mean it is easier to sit your ass at home and demand progress when you are not the one at work. We tend to see scientific and technological advancement as something that is bound to happen and that we are 100% entitled to. Although it's like it's almost impossible to slow its pace down now 'cause many hands are on deck, these things have always been done by people like ourselves and they actually take time. It's just that successful ones are easy to spot than thousand of the unknown, failed procedures leading to successful ones.
@Earthling six billion something and one Things have always taken quite a while. We just didn't hear about the research until it was getting close to market. We might be more advanced than in decades past, but we're also doing more complicated things. It took NASA 20 years to get JWST done. But they had to invent half a dozen new technologies and advance them enough to be usable in space. It took 11 years to make the Blu-ray. Even though it's just a DVD with a different color laser and new programming. It was 80 years after the invention of the fridge before you could buy one in a store.
Is this the stuff that was used for phone accesories over the last 15 years? I remember marketing using the gecko buzzword for these products a ton. Amazing material.
Imagine if they got this to a reasonable level of durability and put it on a road tire. That thing would be the grippiest tire in existence, possibly even with thrift store-level rubber.
I have read a paper from a team of umass Amherst. They are doing a similar project 10 years ago. Very interesting and impressive work. I am a phd chemist and i always want to go back to university to do more advanced research than I am doing now.
I'm just imagining putting some of this on pretty much anything and setting it anywhere on the wall without sticky adhesives, nails, screws, etc. It seems like it would be extremely practical given it isn't too expensive to manufacture. Where can you buy this, anyway?
I love how the technique they use for manufacturing this stuff is dead simple on a small scale. Their machine is quite large for the precission, so that's definitely where it gets to an impressive level of engineering, but if you wanted a few millimeters of the stuff, sub-micron precission is super easy to obtain at that level with enough gearing! This gives a lot of hope for the availability of this stuff. I'm sure people will also revolutionize the way it's manufactured to increase the effectiveness, but for this method; basically dead easy and awesome!
