Geckos and Insects Inspire Adhesive Tape

The University of Kiel in Germany have been developing a new dry adhesive tape, inspired by geckos and insects. The tape is not only super-strong, but like the feet of a gecko. It is able to maintain its bonding strength even when it has been attached and detached thousands of times. It has allowed them to create a super tape that requires at least two times the strength to pull off of a surface, as compared to a flat, hairless tape of the same material. As an added bonus, the gecko-tape leaves no sticky residue, can also work underwater, and can be reused thousands of times – so there’s no profit to be made on a commercial level.