The Stickiest *Non-Sticky* Substance

Adhesives based on gecko skin can hold huge weights – without sticking to anything. Head to to start your free trial. The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant’s annual premium subscription. ▀▀▀ Thanks to Dr. Mark Cutkosky, Tony Chen, Amar Hajj-Ahmad, and the rest of the Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Lab at Stanford University for showing us the power of gecko adhesives. ▀▀▀ References: Russell, A. P., Stark, A. Y., & Higham, T. E. (2019). The integrative biology of gecko adhesion: historical review, current understanding, and grand challenges. Integrative and comparative biology, 59(1), 101-116. – Hajj-Ahmad, A., Suresh, S. A., and Cutkosky, M. R. (June 6, 2021). “Cutting to the Point: Directly Machined Metal Molds for Directional Gecko-Inspired Adhesives.“ ASME. J. Micro Nano-Manuf. – Kerst, Capella F., “Gecko inspired adhesives : permanent practical manufacturing, new materials, and applications,“ PhD Thesis, Stanford University, December 2020. – Suresh, S.A. “Engineering Gecko-Inspired Adhesives.“ Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University, 2020. [Online]. – Suresh, S.A., Kerst, C.F., Cutkosky, M.R., Hawkes, E.W. “Spatially variant microstructured adhesive with one-way friction.“ Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 2019. – Glick, P., Suresh, S.A., Ruffatto III, D., Cutkosky, M.R., Tolley, M.T., and Parness, A. “A soft robotic gripper with gecko-inspired adhesive.“ Robotics and Automation Letters. 2018. – Christensen, D.L., Hawkes, E.W., Suresh, S.A., Ladenheim, K. and Cutkosky, M.R., “µTugs: Enabling Microrobots to Deliver Macro Forces with Controllable Adhesives,“ IEEE/ICRA 2015 (preprint). – Hawkes, E. W., “Applying Dry Adhesives to the Real World,“ Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University, 2015. – ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our Patreon supporters: Meg Noah, Bernard McGee, James Sanger, Elliot Miller, Brian Busbee, Jerome Barakos M.D., Amadeo Bee, TTST, Balkrishna Heroor, Chris LaClair, John H. Austin Jr., Eric Sexton, John Kiehl, Anton Ragin, Diffbot, Gnare, Dave Kircher, Burt Humburg, Blake Byers, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Bill Linder, Paul Peijzel, Josh Hibschman, Mac Malkawi, Mike Schneider, John Bauer, Jim Buckmaster, Juan Benet, Sunil Nagaraj, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Stephen Wilcox, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Michael Krugman, Cy ’kkm’ K’Nelson, Sam Lutfi ▀▀▀ Written by Derek Muller & Petr Lebedev Edited by Trenton Oliver Animation by Ivy Tello Filmed by Derek Muller & Albert Leung Additional video/photos supplied by Pond5 & Getty Images Music from Epidemic Sound Exec. Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, and Emily Zhang