A new Spider-Man movie is about to hit cinemas - meanwhile a materials scientist is using innovations from geckos' sticky feet to bring the spider suit to life.
Credit: AFP/DDP
ROME: An Italian researcher is working on a project that could lead to a real-life Spider-Man suit.
"It's a field that can have very interesting applications in science - like in space, for example," Said Nicola Pugno, at the Polytechnic University in Turin, Italy. "An astronaut could use a suit with a suction-cup adhesion system."
Pugno, a 35-year-old materials scientist, said he has worked on a form of adhesion for the last decade, that might lead to the Spider-Man-like suit. He estimates the suit could be constructed in another 10 years, and would include extremely fine, sticky filaments.
Like many other researchers, he is using the gecko lizard as an example. The gecko's feet are covered with tiny hairs called setae, that allow for strong adhesion to different types of surfaces.
Pugno is seeking to mimic the effect of the setae, though several problems remain to be worked through.
"One of the problems that has arisen is controlling the adhesion - because remaining attached to a wall is not difficult," he said. "All you have to do is attach it with superglue. But then how do you detach it and re-attach it again?"
A self-cleaning mechanism also has to be developed for the system, he said. "A gecko that walks in the sand has to clean his feet after a few steps," he said.
Despite his work's obvious Spider-Man similarities, Pugno said he has no particular interest in the hit movies – another of which is to hit cinemas soon. Science is what fascinates him. Science fiction, he said, "leads to nothing."
why are scientists smart one one side but dumb on the other
The article says "Science is what fascinates him. Science fiction, he said, "leads to nothing."" science wouldn't be anything with out science fiction because every new idea that would seemingly have no basis for ground to stand on starts of as a science fiction idea if you don't believe me look back through history it is an evident part of science. from the light bulb to the computer to little robots the sweep mop our floors and even robots that mow our grass, not to forget things that are in works and development as we speak like Honda is trying to build a real life full size robot capable of doing what ever we want it to there is a guy building a bionic eye there is people look at making cars that can communicate with another to tell the next car where a pot hole is and there is a lot more and that only scratches the surface... it really makes me mad when I see scientists who are supposed to be smarter then I am being more stupid then I. am I saying that I could be a scientist and solve quantum physics equations and change the history of the world no, what I am saying is that there is a lot of scientist that don't think things through like they should on all aspects of the idea of the situation. we should learn from the mistake of Albert Einstein do really think that he would have revealed that e=mc2 if he had known that it could be used to destroy the world. Every one should be thinking of the bad possibility's and solve them before they even think of starting the idea. Sorry for the rant the point of all of this was to say that I disagree with the Italian researcher that science fiction leads to nothing when in fact science fiction leads to new and interesting horizons. Sorry for the rant but it really aggravates me when someone whom is supposed to be so much smarter then someone else dosn't think things though