Voice 1
Hello. I’m Elizabeth Lickiss.
Voice 2
And I’m Marina Santee. Welcome to Spotlight. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live
Voice 1
My son is called Sam. He is sixteen years old. Sam has always been interested in lizards and reptiles. Most people do not like them very much. But Sam loves cold blooded creatures such as snakes, geckos and chameleons. In fact, he owns two geckos! They are black and yellow. And they are about as long as my finger.
Voice 2
On today’s Spotlight programme we find out about geckos. Why are scientists, as well as Sam, interested in them?!
Voice 1
Living with geckos is not always easy. Geckos eat crickets and other insects. Sam keeps lots of crickets in boxes. He feeds them to his geckos. These small insects can make a big noise. They make the noise by rubbing their legs together. Sam’s crickets often keep us awake at night. Sometimes they escape. We find them in the bedroom or in the room where we eat. Sam keeps his geckos in a vivarium - a special box. The vivarium keeps the atmosphere the correct temperature. Sam has made the vivarium look like a desert. It has sand, rocks and a few heat loving plants. Sam’s geckos are now very much part of the family. He has had them for three years now. At first I was not very happy about them. But, I admit, I have also started to enjoy them. Even these small creatures are a wonderful part of God’s creation. Have you seen the way they can run up walls? They can even hang on smooth surfaces. How do they do that?!
Voice 1
Well a group of scientists believe they have the answer. They work at the University of California in the United States. They have studied geckos for many years. The team discovered that geckos have millions of hair-like structures on their feet. These structures are called setae. The setae create forces. The scientists call them Van Der Waals forces. The molecules in the setae and the wall pull towards each other, and form a link. This happens because of unbalanced electrical charges in the molecules. And it is because the small setae are very close to the wall. The large numbers of setae produce very strong forces. They give the geckos wonderful ‘sticking’ power. The geckos can climb up walls. They can even hang upside down from a shiny surface. The creatures stay safely attached until they remove their feet from the surface. Then the link between the molecules breaks.
Voice 2
Many companies have been interested in using this information. They hope to copy the idea and create a new material. The material would have many uses. Imagine what you could do with clothes made of the material. You could climb up a wall like the imaginary hero ‘spider man’. What fun!
Voice 1
Gecko technology is difficult to copy. But scientists at the BAE systems company in England believe that they have managed to do it. They have produced a material that they say will stick anything to anything. It is a plastic called ‘Synthetic Gecko’. The scientists claim that one metre square of the material could suspend an average family car. Doctor Saiad Haq has been working on the material. He believes it could have many uses.
Voice 3
‘Synthetic Gecko could be used for so many things. Doctors could use it in hospitals to repair damaged skin. The material is strong - it could even repair damage to airplane wings. But use your imagination. The window cleaners of the future could stop using ladders. They could simply climb up the wall using the material on their feet and hands’.
Voice 2
Synthetic Gecko is not only strong. It is clean too. People can buy other strong substances for fixing things. But these substances can damage surfaces. The new material does not. When the scientists remove it from a surface, it does not leave a mark.
Voice 1
The material is made using a process called photo-lithography. Scientists use this process for making silicon computer chips. It is a common technology. Photo-lithography uses light to create shapes in the plastic . The shapes look like the sticks, the stems, that support plants. But there are millions of them. They work in the same way as the setae on the feet of geckos. They produce the same Van Der Waals forces.
Voice 2
So far the team have produced several pieces of the material. Each piece measures one hundred millimetres in diameter. The development is still new. But Doctor Haq is hopeful. He believes that Synthetic Gecko will be quick and easy to make. He thinks that many people will find it useful. He believes the company will make a lot of money. But Doctor Haq wants to make one point. The material may be able to hold a car. It may be able to support an elephant. It may let us climb up walls without equipment. But it will be long time before humans can climb and move like geckos. They are the experts at speed and performance.
Voice 1
Scientists like Doctor Haq look at the small gecko and it fills them with wonder. What other secrets do the creatures of the natural world hold?
Voice 2
Doctor David Wilkinson is a scientist and a Christian. He has spent many years looking at the world. He has observed that the smallest of creatures is wonderfully and beautifully made. Doctor Wilkinson says he looks at creation and sees the hand of a designer - God.
Voice 1
Who would have thought there was so much to learn from such a small creature? We would not normally look to a gecko to find the answers to human problems! Modern technology seems to offer us all the answers we need.
Voice 2
Marcus Stutton is a zoologist - he is an expert on animals. He believes that there is a danger in this way of thinking. He says it can stop us from considering the existence of God! But Marcus says that observing nature can help us get close to God. He makes this suggestion. Take a look at the smallest creature you can find. Look at it carefully and wonder at its detail and design. Then ask yourself - did this really happen just by chance or was it designed? Have we really got all the answers? As Marcus says, let God speak to you through his creation.
Voice 2
The writer of today’s programme was Elizabeth Lickiss. The voices you heard were from United Kingdom. Computer users can hear our programmes on our website:
Voice 3
Spotlight on the Internet. Visit our website at http://www.english.radio.net.
Voice 2
This programme is called ‘Gecko feet’.
Voice 1
If you have comments or questions about our programmes you can reach us by e-mail. Our address is radio @ english . net. Thank you for joining us in today’s Spotlight programme. Goodbye.
CommentsMr Minh said on September 02, 2009
For more than 50 years now I have been an avid fan of David Attenborough of the BBC television service. Watched with fascination as his tv programmes articulate the magnificent natural world which our God bequeathed to us
Favourite programmes include Orchid flowers which can mimic a wasp in order to get fertilized, trees which deploy six rotored helicopter wings on their spores to ensure they spread out, right through to the stunning sting ray, equipped with seventeen different sensor systems to detect it’s enemies & an extraordinary ability to change its color to match the terrain over which it moves
Also, he famously described the Gecko’s abilities in similar terms to Spotlight. Shot, as I remember it, in Thai restaurants
To me, at least, our natural world is far more wonderful & strange than anything conceived in science fiction, far beyond our ability to conceive or even imagine
Surely as night follows day, the solution to mankind’s energy problems lies in our understanding how plants derive theirs directly from sunlight
I confess to subscribing to Darwin’s theory of evolution “The Origin of Species”, insofar as it goes, that is
I believe that all life on earth emanated from simple organs residing in some kind of primordial soup. I believe that mankind evolved from our ancestors, monkey’s & apes and that animals in different continents, such as Australia, will spawn alternative life forms
But this is just “The Origin of Species”, not at all the process of creation, which it doesn’t begin to address
Does the development of life forms depend on mutation, chance or accident ? Did we humans acquire our love of music or dancing via a bolt of lightning altering our genetic structure ? How about the age old, eternal, battle between Bacteria and our bodies immune systems, a process far more immediate & striking than anything buried in the eons of time in which evolution sits. Does a cold spell alter the DNA of Bacteria so it can suddenly, but temporarily, supercede the laws of attack & defence ? Did an equivalent mutation strike our bodies defence system , enabling us to deal with it ?
Hardly
Am I being asked to believe that something as fantastic as the human eye, heart or brain is a result of “mutations” ??? Are the 2.5 billion molecules in a single human DNA cell the result of chance ? Is the miracle of birth the result of an environmental accident ?
I don’t think that mankind begins to understand the creative process of life on earth
Great story, Great question Spotlight.
Keep ‘em coming |