It's about time someone recognized ivy's ability to stick to walls, especially with geckos getting all the headlines lately. You had to figure that at some point a few scientists were going to sit down and start figuring out how to transfer ivy's sticky technique to man-made materials. Now researchers from the University of Tennessee and Agilent Labs have determined that ivy actually secretes tiny nanoparticles to bind to surfaces.

The gecko has been the star of numerous scientific papers over the last few years, most of which focus on its incredibly sticky toes, which can hold tight to and then release from vertical surfaces in a few thousandths of a second. But now scientists at the University of California, Berkeley–a hotbed of gecko-related research– are reporting that the magic isn’t all in the toes. The gecko’s long tail is also critical. It helps keep the lizard stuck to the wall, but it also allows the gecko to land on its feet if it falls.