We finally know how the gecko sticks to the walls and all the surfaces it wants, seeming to defy gravity.
A study published this Wednesday in the journal
Biology Letters
has come to answer a question so far left unanswered.
Scientists have long been intrigued by the gecko's near-supernatural ability to cling.
They have known for several years that the tips of the legs of the small lizard are equipped with millions of setules, elastic microscopic hairs ending in the shape of spatulas.
This microstructure makes it possible to marry the shape of the surface on which the gecko moves.
Concrete applications for humans?
Researchers from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently discovered, using an X-ray microscope, that these setulae and their spatulas were covered with a greasy film one nanometer thick.
These lipids, which protect tissues from dehydration, could also play a key role thanks to their hydrophobic nature.
By repelling any water molecules, they would provide spatulas "closer contact with the surface", according to Tobias Weidne, Danish chemist and co-author of the study, which would "help geckos cling to moist surfaces". .
“Now we have a better understanding of how [the setulae] work at the molecular level,” summarizes his colleague, physicist Cherno Jaye.
Researchers are now considering concrete applications of these gecko abilities, in particular via biomimetics.
"We can imagine gecko boots that do not slip on wet surfaces, or gecko gloves to hold wet tools", enumerates the physicist Dan Fischer, who also envisages a "vehicle capable of traversing a wall".
Before we get to that point, more work needs to be done to determine exactly what this lipid film is for.
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