Stickybot robotic lizard was perhaps the first practical attempt at mimicking the Spiderman’s tact of walking up the walls with utter ease. Since then we’d hoped that someday this sci-fi act of self-adhesives would be made real, and today, with the efforts from Cornell University we may be just close to experiencing it. The scientists in Cornell University have developed a palm-sized device that could let humans walk on the walls.

Made in layers of metal and silicon wafers, the sticky device is based on the principle of surface tension which allows two wet, flat surfaces to stick together. According to the developers, the added benefit of the devices now created is that it, unlike the previous attempts of the same, has more controlled stickiness, i.e. the stickiness of the device can be switched on and off. The device for now can only hold up to 10 grams of weight, but by increasing the holes in the surface layer, the developers believe, stronger adhesive force could be managed.