Coming Soon: Spidey In Every Home

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can.
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like flies.
Look out! Here comes the Spiderman.

Well, spinning a web any size may just be a little difficult but the rest might just come true if researchers experimenting with nanotechnology have their way. As per news reports, a fully-working prototype of a suit that would enable people to climb walls and sling webs like comic book hero Spider-Man could be just ten years away. Italian researchers say they have developed a new method for creating a surface-gripping material that mimics “spider silk” and imitates carbon nanotubes.

Stefano Mezzasalma at the University of Trieste said: “The first prototype of a Spiderman suit might be ready in a decade or so“.Scientists have developed the system by mimicking the way geckos hang upside down from walls by a single toe. The lizards are able to adhere themselves to walls in this way due to the millions of tiny elastic hairs called setae that cover their feet.(Source)

Needless to say that if such a suit were to become available commercially at reasonable rates, it would lead to frenzy amongst comic book readers and fans. After all who wouldn’t want to experience what it feels like to climb to the top of a 50 storey building or hang upside down from the ceiling of your room, and that too without a drop of radioactive blood in your body. Looks like Lionel Ritchie’s 1986 classic Dancing on the Ceiling might just come true, hopefully by 2017.

Tags: spiderman, suit, spidey, dancing, nanotech, fiber, gecko

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posted by krisdhingra in News |