Insect-inspired tech leads to spiderman gloves

Oh come on, admit it, you have always wanted to be able to crawl up walls like Spiderman...
Oh come on, admit it, you have always wanted to be able to crawl up walls like Spiderman...

If you have never dreamed of being a real-life Spiderman, then it is likely that you might not be interested a new technology that promises gloves that will let you climb up walls.

However, the fact that you are still reading confirms that you have. So here is what you need to know.

A new device that is inspired by a beetle has allowed engineers to use the adhesive power of water to create gloves that will let you climb up glass, wood or brick walls.

The team of engineers at Cornell University, in New York - funded by the US military - have invented a palm-size device that creates a reversible adhesive bond, inspired by the Palmetto tortoise beetle from Florida.

Professor Paul Steen, a biomolecular engineer at Cornell University, made this latest amazing discovery by pumping small droplets of water – around 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair - through microscopic holes in a flat plate, finding that the surface tension of the water enabled him to glue the plate to another surface.

The plate can then be immediately switched to becoming 'unstuck' by changing an electric field around it.

3-inch wide pad holds 20-stone man

Steen believes it is now possible to create a 3 inch wide pad that could hold up to 20 stone, telling The Telegraph: "What we have is the ability to make strong but reversible bonds and this idea of creating clothing that can give a Spiderman type ability comes from that.

"At the moment the only way it is possible to climb up the side of buildings is to use suction cups which require ungainly and heavy vacuum pumps and a lot of power. We are exploiting the cohesion of water rather than having to create the suction ourselves.

"Epoxy-strength adhesive that is switchable doesn't exist, but we realised the beetle was showing us the way. Our inspiration comes from the beetle, but our control of the "bond" is quite different."

The Professor added: "At the moment we don't know what DARPA [Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency] envisages the end use of our research will be, but having the ability to stick and release a load easily could have a number of uses."

Via The Telegraph

Adam Hartley
Latest in Tech
Apple iPhone 16e
Which affordable phone wins the mid-range race: the iPhone 16e, Nothing 3a, or Samsung Galaxy A56? Our latest podcast tells all
The Apple MacBook Air next to the Dyson Supersonic R and new AMD GPU
ICYMI: the week's 7 biggest tech stories from the best tech at MWC to Apple's new iPads and MacBooks
A triptych image featuring the Bose Solo Soundbar 2, Nothing Phone 3a Pro and the Panasonic Lumix S1R II.
5 trailblazing tech reviews of the week: Nothing's stylish, affordable flagship and why you should buy AMD's new graphics card over Nvidia's
The best tech of MWC 2025 examples, including the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, the Nubia Flip 2, and the Lenovo Solar PC
Best of MWC 2025: the 10 top tech launches we tried on the show floor
Toy Fair 2025 Primal Hatch
The 7 best toys we saw at Toy Fair 2025, from a Lego boat to a hatching, robotic dinosaur
ICYMI
ICYMI: the 7 biggest tech stories of the week, from a next-gen Alexa to the new iPhone 16e
Latest in News
Apple's Craig Federighi demonstrates the iPhone Mirroring feature of macOS Sequoia at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024.
Report: iOS 19 and macOS 16 could mark their biggest design overhaul in years – and we have one request
Google Gemini Calendar
Gemini is coming to Google Calendar, here’s how it will work and how to try it now
Lego Mario Kart – Mario & Standard Kart set on a shelf.
Lego just celebrated Mario Day in the best way possible, with an incredible Mario Kart set that's up for preorder now
TCL QM7K TV on orange background
TCL’s big, bright new mid-range mini-LED TVs have built-in Bang & Olufsen sound
Apple iPhone 16e
Which affordable phone wins the mid-range race: the iPhone 16e, Nothing 3a, or Samsung Galaxy A56? Our latest podcast tells all
Homepage of Manus, a new Chinese artificial intelligence agent capable of handling complex, real-world tasks, is seen on the screen of an iPhone.
Manus AI may be the new DeepSeek, but initial users report problems