Many animals climb, but few do it as well as the spiders. These eight-legged creatures can be anywhere. Now researchers have come up with surprising clues as to how spiders can stick to almost any surface. The structure of tiny hairs at the tips of the spiders’ legs likely help them hang on.
Clemens Schaber, who led the new study, said, “Adhesion, or stickiness, is an important part of that. Spiders don’t have a sticky liquid on their feet. Instead, they use ‘dry’ adhesion. Animals that use dry adhesion can stick and unstick to surfaces easily.”
At the end of a spider’s leg, there are some so-called hairs. At the tips of these hairs are small, flat structures that look like spatulas. When the hairs touch something, these “spatulas” form bonds with the surface and stick. Before this latest research, Schaber knew the hairs were important for adhesion. He wanted to know more about why they worked so well.
They first tried to pull the hairs off the spider legs. But the whole leg often came off. This is a natural defense that the spiders use to escape their enemies. Then they used a powerful microscope to view the hairs up-close. Schaber expected that all the hairs would point in the same direction, more or less. But it wasn’t like that. Instead, as the researchers looked at the tip up-close, they saw the ends of the hairs were all a little bit different in direction.
The researchers then tested the stickiness of the hairs on different materials. They found that some hairs had the strongest adhesion at one angle. Others worked best at other angles. So this mix of angles and adhesions may help the spider stick no matter how it touches a wall.
“The study is quite interesting,” said Schaber. “It shows us new ways to think about making structures stick to surfaces.”
【小题1】What did the researchers find in the study?| A．Spiders’ motivation to climb. | B．Spiders’ sticky liquid on their feet. |
| C．The secret to spiders’ ability to stick. | D．The existence of hairs on a spider’ s legs. |
| A．The real purpose of the study. | B．The shapes of so-called hairs. |
| C．The stickiness level of so-called hairs. | D．The link between surface and stickiness. |
| A．The shape of spatulas. | B．The number of tiny hairs. |
| C．The direction of tiny hairs. | D．The importance of tiny hairs. |
| A．It shows us new ways to study animals. | B．It gives humans more creative ideas. |
| C．It proves humans can climb as spiders. | D．It helps to find a naturally sticky material. |
