Comments on: Geckos can't climb teflon

By: Ray Perkins

Ray Perkins — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:24:00 +0000

How long before Tefal steal the video for an advertising campaign?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:21:00 +0000

Don’t you perform evolution when you procreatively mate with someone because of his/her desirable characteristics?

By: eldritch

eldritch — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:52:00 +0000

Evolution is a natural process, not a school of science. Engineers perform engineering, astronomers perform astronomy, but nobody goes out and performs evolution.

By: jhertzli

jhertzli — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:22:00 +0000

We will next try to answer the question: What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?

By: Lyle Hopwood

Lyle Hopwood — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:22:00 +0000

It is a Tarentola mauritanica. A Moorish gecko. You are correct. I’ve seen many of them, although I’ve never made them attempt to run up a non-stick pan.

I have seen my Day Geckos unstick and fall off the glass when I’ve been spraying their tanks with water though. They look very embarrassed when they do that.

By: Boris Mohar

Boris Mohar — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:19:00 +0000

The pan wasn’t hot enough.

By: Robert Cruickshank

Robert Cruickshank — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:47:00 +0000

The video is too short to add Yackety Sax to. Reshoot, please.

By: rrh

rrh — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:57:00 +0000

Well, it’s like the Wright brothers vs. gravity.

By: sleater

sleater — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:35:00 +0000

It’s a gecko. Look at those rounded toes. Tarentola mauritanica maybe?

By: Roy Trumbull

Roy Trumbull — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:17:00 +0000

I still don’t want to buy insurance from one.

By: trieste

trieste — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:03:00 +0000

In the next section of the french video we see how difficult it is for the gecko when olive oil and a little garlic is added and the gas is turned on.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:35:00 +0000

Isn’t evolution a school of science? Where do we draw the line in the continuing war between science and nature?

By: RedShirt77

RedShirt77 — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:30:00 +0000

So non stick pans reduce sticking? Science!

What happens when you do this with a Jesus lizard?

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:23:00 +0000

“a geckos uses a very different method of adherence involving gazillions of tiny hairs (or hair like projections) which interact with Van der Waals forces … electrostatic attraction at the atomic level. ”

Maybe this is dependant on the type of lizard, but Bearded Dragons (an example of which can be seen in the above video) just use their claws as far as I’m aware. Your explanation sounds much fancier though, and may well be true for Geckos (for which this is not).

By: theophrastvs

theophrastvs — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:20:00 +0000

if i recall correctly (and if i don’t someone here will call me foul names) “spiders & flies” use a combination of claws and stickiness (semi-liquid) to find a sort of “rock climber’s hold” on the surface (which is much easier when one’s mass is so relatively small); whereas… (it’s a good day when one can use a ‘whereas’)… geckos use a very different method of adherence involving gazillions of tiny hairs (or hair like projections) which interact with Van der Waals forces … electrostatic attraction at the atomic level. Someone else, ((you reading this perhaps)) can explain how Teflon™ can reduce the effectiveness of such forces (probably related to the dielectric properties of PTFE, maybe)

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:18:00 +0000

That’s a baby Bearded Dragon btw, not a Gecko!

Awesome (and very friendly) little guys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogona

This is actually quite an important detail, as their climbing techniques are completely different.

Unless of course I’m mistaken and this is a particular type of Gecko that looks exactly like an infant Beardy.

http://babybeardeddragon.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/babybeardeddragon.jpg

By: xzzy

xzzy — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:15:00 +0000

Once again, science beats nature.

Ball’s in your court, evolution.

By: Mordicai

Mordicai — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:03:00 +0000

Huh, I wonder how this scales down– if spiders & flies would have the same problem. I mean, same fundamental forces, right?

By: SvenOrtmann

SvenOrtmann — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:39:00 +0000

“…a Tefal frying pan, that is to say, a pan made of Teflon…”

WRONG. Such a pan has a Teflon coating only.

By the way: Teflon is a thermoplastic polymer and was found in 1938, long before even the A4 rocket – 20 years prior to NASA.

By: freshyill

freshyill — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:20:00 +0000

I read a long time ago, that researchers that need to capture geckos for study will build a trap out of a large sheet of teflon it that will funnel them into a container