Potential of gecko’s sticky toes fascinates U of C researcher
The ability of geckos to sell life insurance is pure myth, but their tiny, sticky toes could do wonders in everything from robotics to bandages, according to new work by a University of Calgary researcher.
By duplicating the bonding principles of gecko toepads, better technologies ranging from robotic devices that stick to any surface to dry adhesive bandages can be developed, says Anthony Russell.
“We’re trying to borrow the best ideas from nature,” Russell said Wednesday.
“The more we know about the animals, the better the approach we can take to fabricating things that would be useful for us without wasting a lot of effort on trial and error.”
Russell has worked with a team of researchers from three universities for six years on a study now published in the science journal PLoS ONE.
Their study shows that geckos have gained and lost their adhesive structures multiple times over the course of their evolutionary history, in response to habitat changes.
Russell said by gaining a better understanding of the complicated progression of gecko toepads, researchers and engineers can learn from natural designs and quickly advance adhesive technologies, including wound closures.
“In surgery, instead of using sutures you would use some sort of biodegradable but highly adhesive system, which would cut down on infection (and) potentially cut down on scar tissue,” Russell said.
A gecko’s sticky toes cling to any surface through a combination of weak intermolecular forces and frictional adhesion.
The toepads have a pressuresensitive adhesive that unlike sticky inventions such as tape leaves noth- ing behind and can be reused repeatedly.
“Geckos have basically perfected this system for them over 100 million years. . . . We know this works, so we have to take their ‘knowledge,’ ” Russell said.
The professor of zoology has loved lizards since childhood and has studied geckos on and off for the past 40 years.
“I’m probably one of two or three people in the world that looks at the Geico gecko and says, ‘That’s full of mistakes,’ ” Russell said.
The researcher said the auto insurance company’s mascot has too many fingers, an accent that doesn’t match where it comes from and eyelids when it shouldn’t.
Geckos are a part of popular culture and scientists have a lot to learn from their tiny, sticky toes Russell said. “I just think they’re really neat beasts.”