Spider-Man Still Possible Due to Science, so Nature Can Just Shut Up

Sure, this is more technologically driven than an innate ability to stick to walls, but I have to imagine that Peter Parker, who built his own web shooters—arguably one of his best “powers”—would approve. That is, unless the development of these Spidey gloves was funded by some wacky, anti-Spider-Man J. Jonah Jameson scheme.

You may remember that recently, scientists explained that geckos are the largest animals that are able to stick to vertical walls because their foot pads are proportionally large enough compared to their body size. If you scaled a spider up to human size, its sticking ability just wouldn’t cut it, so Spider-Man, with his not-overly-large hands and feet, is more like Frog-Man, as frogs solve their own scaling problems by just … being stickier.

However, these “gecko gloves” add a little but of surface area and a lot of stickiness by virtue of a sawtooth-shaped polymer that provides massive friction as soon as a load (like ~150 pounds of smug scientist) is placed on them. When the load is lifted, the glove moves freely, and you can scale walls like a really slow, less superhumanly durable Spider-Man.

(via Gizmodo)

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Dan Van Winkle

Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct Geekosystem (RIP), and then at The Mary Sue starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at Smash Bros.

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