UMass Professors Help Revolutionize Adhesive World

Video Credit: UMass Amherst official channel 

Within their respective labs and offices on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus, Professor of Biology Duncan Irschick, and Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering Al Crosby have been quietly creating.

The pair, along with a team of graduate and post-doctoral students, has developed a material that has taken the science world by storm, and, they hope, is one that will revolutionize the adhesive world. This material, called Geckskin, has the thickness of a credit card and the pliability of soft rubber. It can stick to any smooth surface, and a piece of just four square inches can hold up to 700 pounds. With its reusable quality, ability to assume heavy loads, and use of dry adhesion, the product will be usable in everyday scenarios as well as in the health and industry sectors. Earlier this year, Team Geckskin was named by CNN Money as one of the top five science breakthroughs of 2012.

The Rooks Band

 

Video Credit: The Rooks Band Official YouTube Channel

From the funky beats of The Roots, to the vocal prowess of Stevie Wonder, to the fierceness of Queen Bey, New York’s indie-soul sextet The Rooks are a perfect combination of all the right things.

Garth Taylor (Vocalist), Louis Russo (Bass), Gabe Gordon (keyboard/piano), Nate Mondschein (Drums), Spencer Hattendorf (Sax) and Graham Richman (Guitar) all met at Wesleyan University as undergraduates. After years of running in the same social circles, and overlapping into various musical endeavors, the guys formed The Rooks in late 2011. They recorded a brief set of studio singles in early 2012, and just released their first EP this past summer.

Now, they are living in NYC as “salaried humans,” said Taylor, with legitimate jobs as teachers, lawyers, and something that Taylor and Mondschein are unclear on, but agree is some form of “financial sorcery” and trying to make this music thing happen.