How do Gekkos walk on the roof without falling down?
In: Chemistry
Many Geckos have little pads on their toes. These pads have microscopic hairs in the same place where our fingerprints would be. These hairs act like a sort of Velcro to solid materials, and because they are so small they can hook onto flat surfaces because of you look at a flat surface under a microscope it actually is quite bumpy and rough.
this climbing mechanism is so strong that geckos actually need to curl their toes backwards in order to Release themselves from the surface they’re climbing on
They have the equivalent of velcro ([hook and loop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRi8LptvFZY)) on their feet; they have [little hairs](https://media.sciencephoto.com/image/c0144849/800wm) that “hook” themselves into the nooks and crannies of the material they’re walking on.
Gecko feet have a bunch of tiny hairs on them. Using these hairs they take advantage of an attractive force between most molecules called van der waals forces. These forces are similar to how static charge can make a balloon stick to your clothing. Geckos are light enough that the force can hold them up.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2002/08/how-geckos-stick-der-waals
Geckos have super tiny, spiky hairs on their toes that, along with static electricity, make them able to cling to nearly any surface. Their toes also have a lot of folds to increase surface area that, with the aforementioned features, give them superpowers. Someone will surely come along with a much deeper and technical explanation
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