BiotechMashup

(University of Calgary) Scientists at the University of Calgary and Clemson University in South Carolina have discovered that the geckos' amazing grip is triggered by gravity. Research to be published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Aug. 5, 2009.

Gecko adhesion is expected to be temperature insensitive over the range of temperatures typically experienced by geckos. We tested the temperature dependence of adhesion in Tokay and Day geckos and found that clinging ability at 12°C was nearly double the clinging ability at 32°C. However our data revealed a complex interaction between temperature and humidity.

Geckos are masters at sticking to surfaces of all kinds and easily unsticking themselves. Inspired by these lizards, a team of engineers has developed a reversible adhesion method for printing electronics on a variety of tricky surfaces such as clothes, plastic and leather. The stamp can easily pick up electronic devices from a silicon surface and print them on a curved surface.

Geckos have amazingly sticky feet. Their stickability comes from billions of dry microscopic hairs that coat the soles of their feet. However, when humidity increases, gecko feet stick even tighter to smooth surfaces, so how do they do it? Biologists have found that increased humidity softens the keratin that makes up the sticky foot-hairs, allowing them to deform and stick tighter to surfaces than hairs in dry conditions.

The "Potsdam Gravity potato", as this representation of terrestrial gravity has become known, can for the first time display gravity variations that change with time. The seasonal fluctuations of the water balance of continents or melting or growing ice masses, i.e. climate-related variables, are now included in the modeling of the gravity field.

Quantum mechanical methods can now be used to study gravity. Scientists in Austria have developed a new measurement method that allows them to test the fundamental theories of physics.

A new experiment proposed by physicists may allow researchers to test the effects of gravity with unprecedented precision at very short distances -- a scale at which exotic new details of gravity's behavior may be detectable.

One year in to a project to save one of the UK's top sites for pondlife, amazing new species are being revealed for the first time. Scientists have discovered an astonishing variety of minute aquatic organisms, so small as to be invisible to the naked eye.

Geckos and other lizards have long been known for their incredible ability to shed their tails as a decoy for predators, but little is known about the movements and what controls the tail once it separates from the lizard's body. Researchers are closer to solving this mystery in a newly published study.