Is it possible to become a superhero

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Skip to content Study with The Open University. Search for free courses, interactives, videos and more! Free Learning from The Open University. Featured content. Free courses. All content. Becoming a superhero: what are the limits of human performance? Updated Friday, 18th March Given our huge industrial base, general robotics might seem a relatively easy challenge to tackle, but has proven much harder than expected. But the news of robotic exoskeletons being used to overcome disabilities shows both that science is already delivering great boons, ad that a full red and gold flying suit of armour might one day be mine … MUAHAHA!

But as anyone who has tried getting through a full day of use on an iPhone 6 will tell you, power supply is the achilles heel of even the coolest gizmos and gadgets. Skipping the weak human elements of any high-tech design helps simplify things immensely.

But it does raise the minor question, how will a robot think for itself? Artificial Intelligence has been a dream of computer scientists from Alan Turing onwards, and after many decades of negligible to slow progress, became a watershed year for AI. I never managed to clear a whole level after year! Answer the Call. Campbell goes on to say that the hero often refuses the call, at first.

This may be from a sense of duty to something else, from fear, from a feeling of inadequacy, or because of many other reasons. However, a hero must sooner or later answer the call. Then, we complete our transformation and become full-fledged superheroes.

Have a Plan. Superheroes are action-oriented. However, before they act they take the time to analyze the situation, and they create a plan that will allow them to achieve their objective. Then, they execute their plan.

Overcome Your Fear. All superheroes embody the virtue of courage. That is, they acknowledge that they feel fear, and then they rise above it. If you want to be a superhero, you have to overcome your fear. You can always call on your inner Hulk. Know that All Superheroes Have a Nemesis. All superheroes have a slew of villains who are constantly out to get them. Superheroes confront and defeat the villains that get in their way.

Inevitably, Batman and his trusty sidekick, Robin, would get caught by the villain and his or her henchmen, and the dynamic duo would be placed in a deathtrap. CNN spoke to experts in the field to learn the science behind a few of the superheroes featured in the next installment of the Marvel movie franchise -- and what would happen if one of their origin stories happened to you. Read More. What if you were bitten by a radioactive spider?

Navy's exoskeleton could make workers 20 times more productive. This is technically the safest way to become a superhero, according to Michael Dennin , professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. In his classes, Dennin often uses superheroes to explain the language and processes of science.

If you were to encounter such a spider, "the radioactivity will be relatively low and won't transmit much to you," Dennin said. Maybe a few genetic mutations occur in isolated genes, but it will be more random than anything.

Dennin believes the impact would be greater if you were bitten by a normal spider carrying a retrovirus. A bite would transfer the virus, which could replicate within the body to make a noticeable difference. Hopefully, it's a good retrovirus that will allow you to scale walls. What if you were exposed to gamma radiation? On the chance that you're exposed to gamma radiation, like Dr.

Bruce Banner, the good news is that you most definitely would not turn green and transform into a Hulk. Radiation is known to create some useful mutations, like those working in conjunction with chemotherapy. In your quest for invulnerability, it is entirely possible that you could change the chemical makeup of your cells through radiation.

However, it requires only the conversion of some of your cells by harmful radiation for you to die, Dennin said. Can we create a real Captain America? We have ways of changing someone's muscle mass through anabolic steroids, but how strong can a person become until they break? Fundamental limits are the barrier, not limitations on what is possible through physics or bioengineering, Dennin said.