Photos: The boxfish, coming to a highway near you

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have concocted an array of microfibers, inspired by the gravity-defying gecko, that can keep objects from sliding down near-vertical surfaces.

At left is a scanning electron microscope image of microscopic hairs on a fiber array. The hairs bond with materials that come in contact with them and make a skid-resistant surface.

Photo by Left: UC Berkeley. Right: Flickr user Copleys.