An Artificial Adhesive Outgrips the Gecko

Gecko-inspired adhesives can help humans climb and may provide a better grip for robotic arms in factories and in space.

Forget Spider-man, and meet Geckoman. Researchers at Stanford University have created a gecko-inspired human climbing system that allowed a grad student to scale a glass wall using two hand-sized sticky pads.

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A Battery to Prop Up Renewable Power Hits the Market

A startup has started selling a battery that helps solar and wind power operate in remote locations.

A new kind of battery that stores energy from solar and wind power cheaply and cleanly has hit the market. It is by far the cheapest of a new generation of large, long-lived batteries that could make it possible to rely heavily on intermittent, renewable energy sources.

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