9 Answers To Science Questions You All Had As Kids

7. How Do Flies Walk Upside Down?

They stick.

You'd think that having feet sticky enough to suspend you from the ceiling would mean that you stay stuck, but flies have managed to develop the perfect balancing act.

Scientists used to think that flies had hook-like hair on their feet to cling to surfaces like Velcro but, actually, on closer inspection, it turns out that those hairs produce a kind of glue made of sugars and oils.

Researchers at the German Max Planck Institute for Metals Research were able to find this out by observing the tiny little footprints that flies and 300 other species of insect leave everywhere (they must be fun at parties).

To stop themselves sticking to the walls for good, flies employ a variety of techniques to come unstuck. Each foot has a pair of claws that help prise it from the surface, and different flies use a combination of peeling, twisting and pushing to lift their feet up.

Apparently peeling is the best technique, although we're not sure how they found that out. Maybe all the flies took a questionnaire or something.

The researchers haven't been closely monitoring the sticky footprints of flies for the sheer fun of it, however. These findings could be crucial in the field of robotics and experts have already used the findings to create a robot that can climb glass.

Apparently, nobody sees any problem with developing sticky-footed robots that can scuttle up walls. Just don't come crying to me when the inevitable uprising becomes a nightmarish hellscape.