Adhesion at 180,000 frames per second
Monday, October 14, 2013 - 06:50
in Physics & Chemistry
Adhesion is an extremely important factor in living nature: insects can climb up walls, plants can twine up them, and cells are able to adhere to surfaces. During evolution, many of them developed mushroom-shaped adhesive structures and organs. Lars Heepe and his colleagues at Kiel University have discovered why the specific shape is advantageous for adhesion. The answer is in homogeneous stress distribution between a surface and the adhesive element. The results have recently been published in the renowned scientific journal Physical Review Letters.