 via robot wisdom maybe you uc folk know these people URL working at lewis clark college the university of california at berkeley the university of california at santa barbara and stanford university the interdisciplinary team confirmed speculation that the gecko s amazing climbing ability depends on weak molecular attractive forces called van der waals forces rejected a competing model based on the adhesion chemistry of water molecules and discovered that the gecko s adhesive depends on geometry not surface chemistry in other words the size and shape of the tips of gecko foot hairs not what they are made of determine the gecko s stickiness to verify its experimental and theoretical results the gecko group then used its new data to fabricate prototype synthetic foot hair tips from two different materials both artificial setal tips stuck as predicted notes autumn assistant professor of biology at lewis clark college in portland ore our initial prototypes open the door to manufacturing the first biologically inspired dry adhesive microstructures which can have widespread applications 