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Sorry, Spiderman..
Sorry, Spiderman...
If you have hopes of replicating Spiderman's ability to climb walls, a new study may crush your dreams.
According to the paper released today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an adult human would need to have adhesive pads covering about 80 per cent of their front to stick to a wall.
Alternatively if a human followed the gecko's lead and relied on adhesive pads on their feet for sticking power, their foot would need to be about one metre long and about 40 centimetres wide.
The comic book-inspired findings emerged from the more serious study looking at "sticky" animals in the hope of developing effective bio-adhesives.
For the study, Dr Clemente and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology examined 225 species of climbing animals ranging in size from the smallest mites to the largest geckos. They found the percentage of an animal's body surface covered by adhesive footpads increased across species as the animal's weight increased.
For a mite just 0.02 per cent of its body was adhesive pads. Spiders needed about 0.92 per cent coverage to stick to a surface, while 4.3 per cent of the gecko's body surface was adhesive footpads.
"If your childhood dream is to become Spiderman, you are going to have to follow this pattern," Dr Clemente said. "Essentially from your toes to the top of your chest will have to be sticky pad. "This isn't going to work -- if you go to hug someone it's going to be a real mess."
Ok, so scaling walls like a gecko (or like Spiderman) is out, but you can still be a superhero! Stick to meat-free dining for a while, and you'll be a hero to all animals, not to mention Mother Earth. What's more, it's increasingly easy to eat heroically, because http://KindMeal.my offers great promotions on meat-free meals all over Malaysia. Check them out now!
Source: http://goo.gl/A3WFhc
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