Study Of A Gecko's Habit example essay topic

The way geckos seem to stick on everything seem like a magic trick, but their special ability is easily explained by taking a closer look under the electron microscope at the bottom of their tiny feet. Geckos have evolved a unique network of tiny hairs on the bottom of their feet. Through the process of this evolutionary change, geckos are able to survive in a verity of habitats all over the world. They can be found in the jungles of Costa Rica, forest of Madagascar and deserts of the Sahara.

Geckos are small, insect-eating, and often very nosy creatures that have become popular pets to many people. They have not only become popular because of their ability to walk up anything, but because of their brightly colored bodies and unique habits of racing up and down vertical surfaces after insects and jumping almost twice their body length to another branch, or rock to escape from predator or to get a prey. Biologists have long admired the Gecko's capability to walk up a smooth surface such as polished glass. As baffled as they were biologist started looking closer at how geckos could achieve such an astonishing trick.

Through the use of an electron microscope biologists discovered that the feet of a gecko reveals about two million densely packed, fine hairs called "setae" on each toe. The seta is only about one hundred micrometers long. Not only does the complex anatomy of a gecko's foot contain seta but it also has another structure of one thousand tinier hairs at the tip called spatula e. By using these tiny hairs, geckos are capable to support their entire body weight with a single toe. Scientists believe that as these billions of pads come in to close contact with a surface, the weak interactions between molecules in the pad and molecules in the surface create a strong bond that is one thousand times greater than a geckos need to hang on a wall. Scientist found that an intermolecular force called Van der Waals causes the strong adhesion through the process of electrical charge around molecules and the attraction between each other.

Through the study of a gecko's habit and understanding the idea of how their feet work we can observe and understand that geckos are able to live in vast places including the harsh desert, because of this biologist are studying and understanding that even in the sandiest places geckos don't get dirty so scientist are looking more closing on how to develop a new self-cleaning, reusable tape that can work in space and under water? Geckos are amazing animal they have seemed to defy the laws of physics. Through years of studies and steady progression we are finally understanding more about how they can cling to everything. As we study more about them will be able to use their technology to our advantage in climbing any environmental situation we might face to exploring space or the depths of the sea..