It’s a sticky subject, but this gecko may play a surprising part in #Ford’s future. https://t.co/iPM13bamck pic.twitter.com/r6pPli9BNh
— Ford Drive Green (@FordDriveGreen) November 16, 2015
When you lean over your desk and copy answers from another student, they call that cheating. When the thing you're copying answers from is a lizard, on the other hand, they call it "biomimicry."
Biomimicry is exactly what Ford is up to in order to solve a recycling dilemma.
To create the interior of a new vehicle, you need to glue cushioning foam to metal and plastic supports. When that vehicle is old and ready to be scrapped, you need to separate that foam off in order to recycle it, and the metals, and the plastics.
Except they can't. The glue is too strong and leaves a sticky residue.
A gecko can scale vertically up a polished pane of glass. They can stick to any surface, and unstick just as easily.
The mystery behind the gecko's feet was only recently unraveled by scientists: the feet are coated in thousands of microscopic hairs which attract the molecules in the surface they want to stick to.
Replicating the geck-effect will be a little more complicated and time-intensive than simply copying answers in class, and by stealing ideas from nature, Ford hopes to vastly improve their recycling programs.
Visit Purvis Ford Lincoln Inc. in Fredericksburg, VA for a test drive today.