Scientists have harnessed the power of gecko feet to create a unique kind of adhesion power.

For years, scientists have tried, without great success, to find a way to reproduce the gravity-defying abilities of gecko lizards, which are so good at climbing that they can cling to a glass surface with just one toe.

The animals’ special talent is the result of molecular interactions between their foot hairs and the surface material.

Because the foot hairs are so small, they can get extra close to the surface, where fluctuating charges of molecules inside the hairs attract opposite fluctuating charges of molecules on the surface, much the way opposite ends of magnets attract.

A team of scientists from the University of Akron, Ohio and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed synthetic gecko foot hairs made from hundreds of strings of carbon molecules called nanotubes embedded vertically into a plexiglass material.

The fibers exhibit adhesion forces 200 times greater than those measured in gecko lizards.

The article goes on to describe how this discovery (pardon the pun) could revolutionize the dry-stick industry, affecting anything that would need to be unstuck and restuck. Kinda like Post-It Notes on steroids. Geckos can hang upside very easily, so 200 times that would be very strong.

For details on how the process actually works, as well as where they want to go from here, you can read the whole story at Discovery Channel News.