REAL LIFE NEWS: CLIMB LIKE SPIDER-MAN
by Hazed
A new video shows a man climbing up a flat glass surface, just like Spider-Man – and yes, it’s real, not the product of special effects or CGI.
The climber is Elliot Hawkes, a mechanical engineer at Stanford whose team pioneered this breakthrough technology. He said, “To work, the surface you’re climbing needs to be relatively smooth; like glass, varnished wood, polished stone, or metal, but you can attach and detach with very little effort, and to make [the gloves] stick all you have to do is hang your weight.”
For years, scientists have been trying to emulate the way that geckos’ feet are able to stick to surfaces and allow them to climb up walls and walk across ceilings. Now they have succeeded. You can watch a video of the climb, and read the technical details of how it works, at the source link below.
The technology is limited at the moment – it will only work on a relatively flat surface, and it fails in the rain. The adhesive material used on the climbing gloves tends to accumulate dirt which over time reduces their effectiveness, but they can be cleaned easily with a piece of sticky tape. Other limitations will no doubt be overcome as the technology advances.
Now we just need to wait for web-slinging technology!
