Here in Austin, Texas, it is not that unusual to see an occasional gecko - caught one last night. Gecko feet have an amazing ability to stick on-demand to a variety of surfaces – even glass! Their climbing ability appears to be related to hair-like structures on their toes (one of the gecko's feet are in the lower right hand corner of the picture). Those “hairs” split and end in tips that are only about 200 nanometers across. To view the individual hairs, you would need a powerful electron microscope. Scientists have learned how to generate textured surfaces that act like gecko’s feet and have even built robots with “gecko-inspired feet” that can climb up walls.
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