Geckovescense

Box-patterned geckos have evolved a unique skin that actively repels water droplets. A network of tiny hairs cover the lizard’s dome-shaped scales, trapping air and forcing water to bead up in droplets. As a result, droplets sometimes collide, and when that happens, changes in the surface area result in a release of kinetic energy that self-propels the droplets right off the lizard’s body.

Scientists hypothesize that this ‘gekovescense’ developed as a method of self-cleaning and to prevent water-hungry microbes from feasting on a gecko’s skin.