Adhesion and Friction in Biological Systems

This book is a collection of experimental studies demonstrating structure-function relationships in various biological systems having particular surface specialization to increase/decrease friction and adhesion. Studies on snake skin, adhesive pads, wing-interlocking devices and sticky mouthparts of insects as well as anti-adhesive and adhesive surfaces of plants are included in the volume containing four main subsections: (1) adhesion, (2) friction, (3) attachment-devices, (4) attachment-related behavior. Numerous experimental methods for characterizing tribological properties of biological surfaces at macro-, micro-, and nanoscale levels are demonstrated. This book is an example of interdisciplinary science in action, combining approaches from biology, physics, engineering, tribology, and materials science. This work is an excellent collection of papers on biotribology for both engineers and physicists working with biological systems as well as for biologists studying friction and adhesion. Since biological surfaces have a great potential for technological ideas that can be used in developing new materials and systems, inspirations from biology reported here may be also potentially interesting for biomimetics.