Reptile Awareness Day and Walking up Walls!

Image from: ReptileChannel.com

Celebrate Reptile Awareness Day on October 21st! The ReptileChannel.com has listed 10 ways to celebrate the day on their website that you can view here.

According to daysoftheyear.com, this special day is dedicated to promoting awareness of reptiles and the ecological challenges they face.

I was surprised to learn that scientists have developed a new adhesive inspired by geckos and their ability to climb. According to the Reptile Channel, the 5 ounce lizards produce an adhesive force equivalent to carrying 9 pounds up a wall! The new adhesive, called "Geckskin" can hold 700 pounds on even a smooth surface, like glass, without slipping. You can read more here.

I decided to do a search of whether or not scientists have created ways for humans to mimic the wall-climbing ability of a gecko. In my search, I came across a news story about how students from The College of Technology and Innovation at Arizona State University invented a backpack and suction cups that allow them to actually walk up walls! This is a must-see news story!

More like this

Geckos are nature's champion climbers. With remarkable ease, they can scamper across ceilings and up smooth vertical surfaces, and they do so at speed. A vertically running gecko can cover 15 times the length of its body in a single second. So far, scientists have focused their attention on the…
Red-eyed tree frog, Agalychnis calidryas. Red-eyed tree frogs live in Costa Rica and other Neotropical regions. Their bright red eyes presumably startle would-be predators. Their diet consists of flies and moths, and possibly includes smaller frogs and crickets. All tree frogs are classified into…
Now that the main gekkotan groups have been introduced, it's time to get down to some of the details. We begin with stuff on lifestyle and behaviour... [gekkotan motley below - mostly assembled from wikipedia - features (top, left to right) Aeluroscalabotes felinus, Pachydactylus bibronii,…
Back to gekkotans: time to look at digits. Geckos are well known for the ability of many species to cling to vertical surfaces, and even to ceilings. In fact, this is usually the one thing about geckos that everyone knows. The powers of gecko adhesion are such that geckos can support their entire…