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Stanford to Colbert: Yes, you can climb like Spider-Man

When Stephen Colbert says science has ruined Spider-Man, a Stanford engineer makes a video showing off his gecko-inspired gloves that proves the late-night TV host wrong.

Michael Franco
Freelancer Michael Franco writes about the serious and silly sides of science and technology for CNET and other pixel and paper pubs. He's kept his fingers on the keyboard while owning a B&B in Amish country, managing an eco-resort in the Caribbean, sweating in Singapore, and rehydrating (with beer, of course) in Prague. E-mail Michael.
Michael Franco
2 min read

Rarely do hosts of late-night talk shows have much to say about engineers from Cambridge and Stanford, but when the host is science-loving Stephen Colbert, things can definitely get interesting.

Last week, Cambridge University announced the results of a study saying that because the size of sticky pads on the feet of any animal that wants to climb a wall is directly proportional to the animal itself, there is a limit on the size of creatures that could climb walls like Spider-Man. And humans don't make the cut.

"If a human, for example, wanted to walk up a wall the way a gecko does, we'd need impractically large sticky feet, said Walter Federle, senior author of a paper on the topic that appeared in the journal PNAS. "Our shoes would need to be a European size 145 or a US size 114."

Colbert got ahold of the news and was naturally saddened.

"Science can be a real buzzkill," the host of CBS' "The Late Show" said during a monologue last week. "Just ask Pluto, which used to be a planet, or cocaine, which used to be a medicine. And the latest thing being ruined by science is Spider-Man." (Disclosure: CBS is the parent company of CNET.)

Not to be put down by Colbert or one-upped by Cambridge, a team of Stanford engineers released a video Wednesday that shows off technology they invented in 2014 that shows Spider-Man-like powers might just be possible after all.

Their invention consists of large pads called gecko gloves that mount on the hands and use 24 tiles coated with a unique adhesive. Because force is equally distributed over these pads, it allows a person to scale a wall -- not quite as smoothly and rapidly as Spider-Man, but steadily one step at a time. The pads adhere when force is applied to them, then release when that force is removed, so climbing is possible.

In the video, a Stanford representative demonstrates the device in action to an a capella version of the 1967 TV show "The Amazing Spider-Man" theme sung by The Stanford Mendicants.

"So there you go Colbert," he says. "Spider-Man is plausible."

OK, Mr. Late Show (and you folks at Cambridge). The sticky ball of spider goo is now in your court.