This is the last one, I promise! Heat vision: I always thought this was a ridiculous power that couldn't possibly happen in real life, and that's still the case. Sorry! The movie was slightly more realistically satisfying in demonstrating a steep cost for Superman's heat vision. It consumed a lot of energy and appeared to momentarily blind him. So watching this movie was less frustrating than watching the (excellent) Justice League cartoon show where you just want to shout at Superman “Stop punching him and use your freaking eye lasers!” I guess that would have ended every conflict too quickly... To make up for any disappointments, here's some bonus science accuracy! In the scene where they find a crashed Kryptonian ship in the ice in the Arctic, scientists there say that they dated approximately how old it is (it's been buried more than 20,000 years) according to the stable isotope composition of the ice cores taken from around it. This is absolutely how science works! The stable isotope composition of the atmosphere changes in predictable annual cycles, as well as in large trends seen over thousands of years. When tiny gas bubbles get frozen in ice, they become a historical record of what the ancient atmosphere was like. Usually it is the ratio of heavy oxygen atoms (δ18O) to normal lighter oxygen atoms that is measured for a signature. Another science bonus related to the Man of Steel is an update on our progress towards X-Ray vision as discussed in Part II. Scientists have done something cool (and a little crazy) in the field of enhancing perception. Using technology similar to the tools we use to restore hearing to the deaf with cochlear implants or visual stimulation to give blind individuals basic sight, these researchers asked the question "Can we extend this stimulation beyond the normal range of perception?" To answer it, they attached headgear to adult rats. The tech consisted of a device that could sense infrared light (invisible to rats and humans alike) and a circuit to transfer this signal directly into the rat's brain where it would register as a sensation on its whiskers. The rats had previously been trained to choose among a number of ports in an experimental set up based on visible light cues from an LED light where the lit port provided a reward of water. After installing the electrodes in their brains, the researchers took away the visible light and gave the rats IR light cues to figure out which port held the reward. It took the rats a few weeks to figure out why their whisker senses were tingling, but they learned to detect the IR and navigate towards it repeatably. So they weren't "seeing" IR per se, but they were certainly sensing a form of radiation that had previously been imperceptible! References:
Thomson, E.E. et al. Perceiving Invisible Light through a Somatosensory Cortical Prosthesis. Nat. Commun. 4:1482 doi: 10.1038/ncomms2497 (2013).
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Another source of Kal-El's power is the energy and rejuvenation he receives from Earth's yellow sun. This is a little shaky scientifically, but let's explore some possibilities of super sunlight. To start, is there any truth behind the idea that Earth's sun is more energy-rich than Krypton's? That's stated as another reason why Superman is more powerful than his people were at home. After consulting astronomical expert Nicole Bardy*, I found that there is indeed some evidence for this! When stars are very young, their radiation output is faint. As they grow and enter a stage of their life called the Main Sequence, their radiation increases. This stage takes up ~90% of their lifetime. Towards the end of their lifespan they become red giants, whose luminosity decreases. Right now our sun is in its Main Sequence and Krypton's sun has been described as a "red sun" in the comic books. This data supports Jor-El's claim that Earth's younger sun will strengthen his son with its higher levels of radiation! Now we get to the trickier part of explaining biologically why this increased radiation is beneficial to our hero. The first thing that comes to mind when discussing solar boosts is photosynthesis. Could Superman have some photoactive compounds that allow him to harvest energy from sunlight? Although Kal-El isn't plant-like, humans have been known to photosynthesize at least one substance: vitamin D. Vitamin D can be obtained from the diet, but the majority of the compound found in our bodies has been synthesized cutaneously. When human skin is exposed to sunlight, the ultraviolet radiation changes 7-dehydrocholesterol into previtamin D3. The previtamin D3 substance then undergoes a heat-driven transformation into true vitamin D. A more familiar skin response to sunlight is tanning (or burning for pale people). Tanning is a result of another synthesis that is photo-driven. UV radiation incident on DNA and melanocyte membranes triggers a series of reactions that produce the pigment melanin, darkening the skin. While humans technically can photosynthesize, too much radiation quickly becomes a bad thing. After all, the melanin production response is a defense to prevent UV from penetrating your skin again. And what about other kinds of radiation? The stories you hear about any radiation exposure are almost invariably bad. Too many rays lead to DNA mutations that cause cancer, and even the controlled radiation we use in chemotherapy to cure said cancer has terrible side effects. And as Nick Fury put it, even low levels of gamma radiation "can be harmful." So how can any living creature (in our scientific universe) benefit from regular massive doses of radiation? Well there is one Earthly example. In the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown, a large number of black fungi were found thriving in the area. These fungi are darkly-colored because of the same compound mentioned before: melanin. But in the case of Wangiella dermatitidis, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Cladosporium sphaerospermum, they use their melanin as an energy-absorbing pigment similar to chlorophyll's function in plant's photosystems. These fungi are gaining energy from the radiation and turning it into food! The fungi were experimentally grown in melanized and albino strains and their growth measured in the presence and absence of radiation. The melanized fungi grew more in the presence of radiation. And when I said they were found near Chernobyl, I mean they were found growing on the walls of the damaged reactor. These things are so amazing they're talking about growing them in space for astronaut chow because they'll love all the cosmic radiation! Suddenly Superman's sun-based powers are looking more realistic! The melanin-synthesis would have the added benefit of supplying energy for his crazy-high metabolism without requiring him to constantly consume food. Only two questions remain in my mind about this solar-powered phenomenon. 1) Why is he drawn so pale when he could be drawing energy from dark melanin? 2) Why did he build his fortress of solitude above the Arctic Circle where the sun doesn't shine for days at a time?? *Nicole Bardabelias, Cornell University class of 2014, Planetary Science and Astronomy, French horn extraordinaire. References:
Ann R. Webb, Who, what, where and when—influences on cutaneous vitamin D synthesis, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Volume 92, Issue 1, September 2006, Pages 17-25, ISSN 0079-6107 Gilchrest BA, Park HY, Eller MS, Yaar M., Mechanisms of ultraviolet light-induced pigmentation, Photochem Photobiol, Volume 63, Issue 1, January 1996, Pages 1-10 Dadachova E, Bryan RA, Huang X, Moadel T, Schweitzer AD, et al. (2007) Ionizing Radiation Changes the Electronic Properties of Melanin and Enhances the Growth of Melanized Fungi. PLoS ONE 2(5) |
Alanna DurkinExploring the realm of biologically inspired design one superhero example at a time, with some other natural sciences mixed in. Archives
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