The Greek philosopher Aristotle once questioned how a gecko could climb different surfaces. The answer, uncovered 2,000 years later, is weak intermolecular forces called Van der Waals forces. The ...

Ever wondered why geckos can scamper up walls and humans cannot? The secret lies in physics, biology and evolution. Discover how animals exploit molecular forces to defy gravity and why humans are ...

A scientist from California has made scaling walls à la Spider-Man a reality – with inspiration from a little lizard species. Elliot Hawkes, a PhD candidate in biomimetics engineering at Stanford ...

A new material relies on millions of tiny plastic fibers that can grip solids as the fabric slides across them, then quickly release those objects when pulled away vertically. The technology is based ...

A research article by scientists at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics developed a neural control algorithm to coordinate the adhesive toes and limbs of the climbing robot. The new ...

A tiny robot that could one day help doctors perform surgery was inspired by the incredible gripping ability of geckos and the efficient locomotion of inchworms. A tiny robot that could one day help ...