Institute For The Future

Artificial Gecko

The gecko must be one of the most-studied animals in the world today, thanks to its ability to climb virtually any surface. A number of engineers are working on making synthetic gecko tape, which would adhere strongly to a surface, without leaving adhesive residue. British company BAE Systems recently announced that it had created Synthetic Gecko, a reusable polymer "covered in millions of tiny mushroom-like hairs."

Future applications could include an adhesive to repair aircraft, skin grafts or even a Spiderman-style suit.

"It would mean that your local window cleaner could dispense with his ladders and climb up the side of your house," says Dr Sajad Haq, a principal research scientist at the company's Advanced Technology Centre in Filton, Bristol....

It is manufactured by a modified version of a technique known as photo-lithography, commonly used to make silicon chips.

The technique uses light to etch three-dimensional patterns into a material.

"The processes we use are modifications of standard electronic fabrication processes," says Dr Haq. "They're cheap, well known, well understood and can be scaled up to very large areas cheaply."