New adhesive device could lead to wall-walking

The much publicized Spider-Man series has always managed to catch children’s attention regarding the supernatural abilities an individual can develop, most notably walking on any surface with ease, be it solid ground, brick walls or even ceilings.

Turning back to real life, a newly developed device has high promises for the child in every one of us, being designed precisely to hold objects – or even people, in theory – thus defeating gravity.

As is the case with many inventions, this one too was inspired by the natural life, more exactly a beetle able to hold onto a leaf with a force 100 times greater than its own weight. Such a feat, in the case of our high-tech device, is achieved by some intricate physics involving the beetle make full use of the surface tension of water in order to create an adhesive bond.

The researchers have even created a prototype consisting of 1000 holes which has managed to hold up to 30 grams. Somewhat disappointing, one might say; however, it has been discovered that simply creating more holes of reduced sizes would enable a similar 1-inch square device to hold nearly 7 kg (15 pounds).

The technology is only in the starting phase and considering the interest it is likely to attract, it is merely a matter of time until we will all turn into wall-walking people resembling the aforementioned Spider-Man or other video game characters such as the Prince of Persia.