A sticky little sucker fish in Puget Sound may be the answer to better designs in surgical instruments, biomedical devices and even radio tags for aquatic creatures.
Research on the Northern Clingfish was presented recently at the Adhesive and Sealant Council's spring convention and the possibilities of harnessing the suction power of this tiny fish for medical and environmental use was seen as a breakthrough in the search for methods of attaching necessary medical devices to internal organs, tagging whales at sea to name just two possible applications.
The Northern Clingfish can hold up to 150 times its weight, even on wet, slimy or uneven surfaces. Researchers form the University of Washington hope to look at how long the fish can stick to something, now that they know the strength of the finger-sized creature.
(Source: Science Daily, University of Washington)
