Why You’ll Never See a Dirty Gecko?

Why You’ll Never See a Dirty Gecko

If in the future we ever wear self-cleaning jackets, it could have been inspired by a gecko. Jolanta Watson, who is an Australian scientist, removed the dead body of a box- patterned gecko from her lab freezer to prepare it for an experiment. As she studied it, she noticed that all over the gecko’s skin were tiny water droplets forming. These droplets quickly got bigger and eventually popped right off. As she and her husband Gregory Watson looked closer, they realized that the gecko had self- cleansing skin. The reptile’s skin is covered with tiny, dome-shaped scales. On top of each scale are microscopic hairs that trap water from dew or mist. The droplets then bead together and roll around the scales. As they are rolling, the droplets pick up dirt and dust. As soon as the droplets get big enough, the spines fling off the now-dirty water.

Quite a few geckos have hydrophobic skin that causes liquids to bead and roll off. However, the box-patterned gecko’s skin is so water repellent that researchers now call it super- hydrophobic. The gecko’s skin doesn’t just shed water but many other different types of liquids. In lab experiments, the skin also made coffee, soy sauce, vinegar, red wine, milk, cola and blood bead up the same way as the water.

Researchers also found that geckos have ultra-low adhesion skin that help keep them healthy and clean. The skin’s surface is bumpy and uneven which minimizes the number of places to where a speck of dirt can cling. Most dirt particles find it hard to get a firm grip and just rest on the humped top of the skin’s nanobumps. Finally, the gecko’s skin could kill bacteria that touched it but causes no harm to human cells that are placed on it. The Watson’s are now working with materials that mimic the skin of a gecko to study its properties which could help lead to benefits for people.