Trade Secret of Sticky Spiders Revealed
In the current issue of the journal Smart Materials and Structures, researchers describe just how a spider manages to stick to ceilings in apparent defiance of gravity. The adhesion is based on van der Waals forces, which create electrostatic attraction between the tiny hairs on a spider’s feet and a surface. Apparently a spider can produce an adhesive force 170 times its own weight. Obviously many marketable applications for an adhesive based on the van der Waals forces.
Read the paper abstract: Getting a grip on spider attachment: an AFM approach to microstructure adhesion in arthropods
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