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A new study shows that while the size of climbing animals increases, so does the proportion of the amount of their bodies covered with adhesive footpads. This sets a limit on the use of this climbing strategy, as a larger animal would require impossibly large footpads. Mites use approximately 200 times less of their body area for adhesive pads than geckos, and a human would need around 40% of his or her total body area to be able to scale walls like Spiderman. This translates to 80% of the front side of a human body, or a US shoe size of 114. Smaller animals have a larger ratio of body surface area to volume, whereas bigger animals have much more volume for the small amount of body surface area they have. This is a problem for larger animals attempting to climb, as they are too heavy and can only have a certain amount of their body surface actually be adhesive. It turns out that geckos appear the to be about the limit size for animals to have adhesive footpads. One solution for larger animals to perhaps make sticky footpads even stickier, which is what some frogs have done. I find this issue of particular importance because now I can never grow up and be Spiderman, which is somewhat disheartening, given that we are told from an early age that we can be whatever we want to be. Ah, but there may in fact be a way to fulfill the dream of being super-heroic: even stickier adhesive pads. With such sticky pads, people would be able to scale walls or windows with ease, rather than have to use some sort of scissor-lift or crane. Since scissor-lifts and cranes require some sort of energy input (usually electrical), being able to use adhesive human power instead could be a way to save some electricity. The idea also reminds me of a scene in Mission Impossible where Tom Cruise has to climb up a skyscraper with similar footpads that work with suction instead of adhesive. So, if sticky footpads can help a spy assassinate a dictator or villain that has some environmentally destructive plan for running his or her domain, then sticky footpads can help alleviate the problem of further harm to the planet. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160118184359.htm
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April 2016
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