Ultra-Strong Biomimetic Adhesive Could Allow Human Wall-Walking, Ceiling-Dancing

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 12:49 in Physics & Chemistry

Leaping tall buildings, punching through solid concrete walls and using public phone booths as ersatz changing rooms without anyone noticing are still beyond human capacity, but a development at Cornell University might allow us to walk on walls like Spider Man, or even dance on the ceiling like Lionel Richie. Employing the same surface tension that makes two wet, flat surfaces stick forcefully together (think microscope slides), researchers at Cornell developed a palm-sized device consisting of a flat plate full of extremely tiny holes (on the micron scale) and separated from a liquid reservoir by a porous middle layer. Current form a 9-volt battery pumps water through the device, pushing tiny droplets through the top layer, creating many tiny points of surface tension that can grip another surface. Reversing the current causes the droplets to retract and the grip to cease, so the user can grip and release instantly and...

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