Sticky

I was originally going to post a picture of an "architectural model" of an ant "nest," made by pouring orthodontic plaster down an ant hole (I originally read about this on BoingBoing). But I thought this (from NewScientist) was cooler (more cool?) -- a robot version of a gecko:

It's called a Stickybot. And it sticks to walls and other surfaces the same way a real gecko does, using "an intermolecular force called the van der Waals force" (vdW force is neat stuff, but I'm not going to try to explain it right now, lest people's eyes glaze over). Stickybot comes from Stanford U., and the article also mentions that "The Pentagon is interested in developing gecko-inspired climbing gloves and shoes." The Pentagon, heck! I want some of those!http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/mg19025526.500

But if you still want to see ant nest, which is pretty wild on its own, go here:
http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1672%2F1536-2442%282004%29004%5B0001%3ATNAOTF%5D2.0.CO%3B2#toclink6