The sticky feet of the White’s tree frog (Litoria caerulea) provides it with an incredible ability to cling to almost any surface at any angle. But with these extraordinarily sticky toes, how do they prevent them from constantly picking up dirt which would reduce their power of adhesion? Recent research has found tiny hexagonal patterns on the frogs’ feet that channel mucus between them, which acts both to adhere the frog to the surface and then, as the foot is lifted, to carry away any dirt - the feet are entirely self-cleaning. If this could be translated to a man-made material, it could be used in adhesive products such as medical bandages to prevent contamination from occurring.Ref: Society for Experimental Biology (2011) Tree frogs’ self-cleaning feet could solve a sticky problem. ScienceDaily [link]

The sticky feet of the White’s tree frog (Litoria caerulea) provides it with an incredible ability to cling to almost any surface at any angle. But with these extraordinarily sticky toes, how do they prevent them from constantly picking up dirt which would reduce their power of adhesion? Recent research has found tiny hexagonal patterns on the frogs’ feet that channel mucus between them, which acts both to adhere the frog to the surface and then, as the foot is lifted, to carry away any dirt - the feet are entirely self-cleaning. If this could be translated to a man-made material, it could be used in adhesive products such as medical bandages to prevent contamination from occurring.

Ref: Society for Experimental Biology (2011) Tree frogs’ self-cleaning feet could solve a sticky problem. ScienceDaily [link]

Source: Flickr / sillypucci

  1. cog-nito reblogged this from zoo-logic
  2. screamfordream reblogged this from zoo-logic
  3. semper-pi reblogged this from owldude and added:
    animals provide so much of our technology. i love it.
  4. owldude reblogged this from bexelated
  5. bexelated reblogged this from zolanimals
  6. stupidsexysniper reblogged this from zolanimals
  7. zolanimals reblogged this from zoo-logic
  8. indistinguishablekatzenjammer reblogged this from zoo-logic
  9. wildeaboutoscar reblogged this from zoo-logic
  10. blondebiologist reblogged this from zoo-logic
  11. auzzie-auzzie-auzzie reblogged this from zoo-logic
  12. joyinme reblogged this from zoo-logic
  13. sweetpeacelove reblogged this from zoo-logic
  14. tuliropalagi reblogged this from zoo-logic
  15. grumy reblogged this from zoo-logic
  16. ohmysagan reblogged this from zoo-logic
  17. toriixox reblogged this from zoo-logic
  18. zoo-logic posted this