Sticky Feet: From Animals to Materials

Many insects and some larger animals, such as geckos, skinks, and tree frogs, can easily climb vertical walls and even walk on the ceiling. These abilities require a method to attach the feet strongly but reversibly to a variety of surfaces—smooth or rough, hydrophilic or hydrophobic, clean or containing contaminants. This issue of MRS Bulletin examines how fibrils, absorbed water layers, geometry, and other factors make reversible adhesion possible, and how this understanding might be applied to robots and other artificially created structures that can climb walls, walk on ceilings, and get to other hard-to-reach places.