Ever thought how does a lizard or gecko (as known in certain countries) and spiders have the abilities to hang on to the ceiling but does not fall off easily?It's not easy to understand as involves science and quite complicated for me too. Both the lizards and spiders have tiny hairs which act as an adhesive agent. As seen, a lizard may not be that light but yet it was able to have the strength to hold its body up at the ceiling, upside down.
The Spiderman, in cartoon or movie format, displayed the same abilities for sticking onto walls up high in the buildings.
The scientists have done a research under "Structural properties of a scaled gecko foot-hair" under the Bioinspiration and Biomimetics which has been published in the Journal of Physics.
The scientists are doing a research on a potential spiderman suit which has the same capabilities as shown in the Spiderman movie.The following criterias must be met first:-
1. most obviously, it must be able to demonstrate strong adhesive properties
2. the suit must be able to detach easily from a surface after it has stuck
3. the suit must, to some degree, be able to clean itself as dirt may interfere with the adhesive properties of the suit
And all the above involves such scientific terms:-
* intermolecular forces
* "van der Waals" forces
* carbon nanotubes
* geometrical properties or topology
* superhydrophobic
In the end, the scientists did mention this - that human beings' muscles were not developed to hang upside down like the lizards or geckos as the muscles will have its fatigue after a long hang. So, please go back to being a human ....... don't dream that you could a be superhero. That's only a comic book story.
Tags: Lizard, Gecko, Spider, Spiderman, Journal of Physics, Bioinspiration, Biomimetics, Intermolecular Forces, Van der Waals Forces, Carbon Nanotubes, Geometrical Properties, Topology, Superhydrophobic, Comic Book
7 comments:
Too bad though! Would be kinda cool to hang upside down! I can't believe there ar people who are actually trying to develop a "Spidey suit!" That has weird parallels with the green goblin a character from the spider man comics! Very cool post! Very informative! Take care friend!
I love spiderman... maybe coz of tobey macguire to a certain extent. Haha...
anyway, thanks for the TLC johnny!
Ooo... ooo, I want to be a superhero for a day! LOL That's crazy, thanks for the info.
Awww....But i love to dream!!!
You can't ask someone to give up dreaming, can you??
:P
barrett - so u r one of those who has spidey instincts too
princess - tobey macguire??? i think u need to have superman's eyesight.... to see properly ...hehe
jeff - way to go jeff
3.8 - of course u can. i always encourage ppl to dream and dream as big as they can in fact. who knows, when this spidey suit is ready they may call u up for a testing as a guinea pig.... (ain't that a good dream)
yay i can comment liaw!!! wahahahhaha. why u update so fast one, i cannot catch up lahh =P that lizard pic looks gross *pukes* if only lizards and spiders are cuter beings, then the world would be a better place.
personally, i have phobia abt lizard. why? it did drop through my round neck t-shirt b4 and could sense it moving inside (imagine taking the t-shirt off and was thinking it could be on my face next), that's why!
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