Italy Invents Spidersuit, Geeks Drool
Scientists in Italy (more specifically, at the Polytechnic of Turin) might have just found the invention that will make all geeks everywhere explode in an ecstatic outburst of sheer joy. Italian scientists, you are now my favorite people on Earth. What could be that great, you wonder? How about a suit that mimics Spider-Man's wall-crawling powers? That's right people. Wall. Crawling. Action.
Now, let's not get too carried away. The suit is still on the drawing board. It is, however, based on the "natural tech" of lizards and spiders that allows them to cling to walls. The secret? Carbon nanotubes. If that doesn't sound like a product of Reed Richards' lab, I don't know what does (but are they made out of unstable molecules?)
"Shaped like miniature hooks and loops that function in the same way as Velcro, these mimic the billions of hairs on the foot of a gecko, which allow the creature to scuttle effortlessly up walls," writes David Derbyshire of the Daily Mail.
As a kid, I looked forward to the new millennium full of jet packs and flying cars, and am sorely disappointed in the still-mundane advances of personal technology today. But this ... this could be just as good, if not better. True, if this thing ever even gets past the prototype stages it would surely cost a ridiculous amount, but still, it's fun to dream.
"It may not be long before we are seeing people climbing the Empire State Building with nothing but sticky shoes and gloves to support them," said research leader Professor Nicola Pugno.
Now all they need to do is invent a web-shooter, and my childhood fantasies will be nearly complete.
