Figure 1.

Hierarchical organization of the gecko attachment system: (a) longitudinal section of the gecko toe with the lamella (horizontal thin keratinous film) covered with setae in non-contact state; (b) setae (st) in contact with the substrate; (c,d) setae branching into single nanofibres terminated with spatulae (sp); (e–g) spatulae orientation in a non-contact state (e,f) and contact state (g). White rectangles indicate areas which are zoomed in follow up images. Black arrow (dist) indicates distal direction of the toe in all images in this figure. White arrow shows spatula flipping from non-contact orientation to the contact orientation.