And what did they do when in lockdown during the Black Death?

They didn't have the internet or video games to keep them sane.  So what did they do to pass the time of curfew and false imprisonment?

Can we learn anything from them?  Any ideas?

I knew that Geckos arboreal ability came from the hair on their feet but not the mechanics of the action.
the question suggested to me that a secretion was thought to be involved such as slug/snail slime.

Hence the statement, cheers for the heads up though; most informative.

 

Well, is it?  Does the Queen own a McDonald's franchise?  I have it from a trusted mate that she does, but he can't give me any more than that.

For example, Where is this right royal McDonald's outlet?

Any takers?

While it may be a possibility, I would have thought they would have included limpets in any study.
Can't see where geckos would come into it.

Can't see where Geckos would come into it?  Really?  Have you never lived in the tropics Moonzero and watched in total fascination at the way Geckos run up your living room walls and zoom straight across your ceiling without once falling off or even stumbling?

It's incredible to watch.  Must be some kind of super superglue, right?

So maybe no wonder scientists and glue manufacturers are more than interested in Geckos sticky toes, eh?  Wrong!  The truth is that Geckos clinging to walls and ceilings has absolutely nothing to do with glue, super or otherwise.   

It's because Geckos have very hairy toes!  Microscopically hairy toes!

What's more, Geckos can even quickly turn the stickiness of their toes on and off, a new scientific study has found.

Gecko toes are well-studied by boffins, and their sticky toe properties have already  inspired some incredible new human technologies...such as stitch-free ways to seal wounds...and sticky handheld paddles that may help soldiers scale walls someday.  (Trust bliddy humans to exploit Geckos militarily!)

For the past decade, researchers have already been developing synthetic adhesives with nano-sized fibres designed to mimic Geckos' bristly little toes.

And new research on the subtleties of 'Gecko Adhesion' shows that nature is still outpacing scientists in the lab.  (For 7 more remarkable ways that studying Nature has already inspired important human inventions, just Google this following website...Biomimicry: 7 Technologies Inspired by Nature.)

If I haven't already bored you to death, and you are still reading this... As already mentioned, Geckos can stick to surfaces because their bulbous little toes are covered in hundreds of tiny microscopic hairs.  These are called setae. 

But there's more!  Each seta itself splits off into hundreds of even smaller bristles called spatulae.  Scientists already knew that the tufts of these tiny hairs get so close to the contours in walls and ceilings that the van der Waals force kicks in. 

Van de Who force?  The van der Waals force basically says that... This type of physical Gecko-toe bond happens when electrons from the Gecko's hairy toe molecules and electrons from the wall molecules interact with each other and create an electromagnetic attraction.

QED?

All this highly fascinating (?) stuff I gleaned from https://www.livescience.com/47307-how-geckos-stick-and-unstick-feet.html

But remember you heard it on AI first!

I gave up waiting for an answer since November last year so I decided it was time  to answer this myself. 

It was easy.  I just cribbed this answer from the BBC's website...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19761919

If you don't do anything else today, make sure you scroll down and read the third clause.  The main three clauses still law today are interesting but it is Number 3 that is the one we all desperately need and can be most thankful for.  The BBC website says...

"Only three of the 63 clauses in the Magna Carta are still in law. One defends the freedom and rights of the English Church.

Another relates to the privileges enjoyed by the City of London.

And the third - the most famous - is generally held to have established the right to trial by jury.

Below are the full translations of the relevant clauses from the 1215 copy of the Magna Carta held at the British Library.

1.   Clause 1: The liberties of the English Church
"First, that we have granted to God, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired.

"That we wish this so to be observed, appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and our barons, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church's elections - a right reckoned to be of the greatest necessity and importance to it - and caused this to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III. This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity.

"To all free men of our Kingdom we have also granted, for us and our heirs for ever, all the liberties written out below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs."

2.   Clause 13: The privileges of the City of London
"The city of London shall enjoy all its ancient liberties and free customs, both by land and by water. We also will and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall enjoy all their liberties and free customs."

3.   Clauses 39 & 40: The right to trial by jury
"No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.

"To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice. No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled . nor will we proceed with force against him . except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. "[/size]

Who cares about the other 60 clauses so long as we have that all-important third close enshrined in our human rights legislation?