Latest Duncan Irschick Stories

For years, biologists have been amazed by the power of gecko feet, which let these 5-ounce lizards produce an adhesive force roughly equivalent to carrying nine pounds up a wall without slipping. Now, a team of polymer scientists and a biologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered exactly how the gecko does it, leading them to invent "Geckskin," a device that can hold 700 pounds on a smooth wall. Doctoral candidate Michael Bartlett in Alfred Crosby’s polymer...

U.S. scientists studying the process of hammering a nail say they found men are more accurate than women when hammering under poor lighting conditions. But the University of Massachusetts-Amherst researchers conversely found women are more accurate than men when hammering in good light, regardless of target size. Associate Professor Duncan Irschick and his team said their findings suggest humans have remarkable compensatory ability during difficult motor tasks such as hammering in the dark....

When it comes to something as simple as hammering a nail, some people are naturals and get the job done after a few clean, sharp strokes of the hammer, whereas for the rest of us a similar challenge is likely to end up with the nail bent in the middle, a sore thumb and a wounded pride. Dr. Duncan Irschick and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have measured hammering performance in men and women and found that men are more accurate than women when hammering under...