Gecko Foot Image Revealed as 133-Kilogram Climber in Microscope Mystery

2 articles · Updated · ScienceAlert · Aug 24

This week’s Microscope Mystery answer was the underside of a gecko’s foot, shown as a dense field of branching setae under a scanning electron microscope.
Hundreds of thousands of setae on a single toe split into finer spatulae, letting weak van der Waals forces add up to strong adhesion without glue, suction or hooks.
Researchers estimate a gecko could theoretically support about 133 kilograms if every seta engaged at once, far beyond what it needs to run across walls and ceilings.
Peeling its toes upward at a precise angle lets the animal release that grip almost instantly, a mechanism engineers have long tried to mimic in synthetic adhesives.
The image’s colors were added afterward; electron microscopes capture structure with electrons rather than light to reveal detail optical microscopes cannot.