• Question: Could it be possible for someone to get superpowers from radioactivity rather than getting a disease? (e.g spiderman got powers from radioactivity of a spider that modified his blood)

    Asked by anon-258528 on 10 Jul 2020.
    • Photo: Sebastian Cosgrove

      Sebastian Cosgrove answered on 10 Jul 2020:

      I am not an expert on this, but I think high doses of radioactivity messes up your cells and gives you cancer long before you would get super powers. People who have been exposed to massive amounts of radiation usually get very sick and die quite quickly (Chernobyl is an example of this) or who are exposed to low levels get ill gradually over time and then pass away due to complications that arise from the radiation (Marie Curie is a famous example of this). Like I say, I am not an expert, but I don’t expect there is ‘safe’ radiation.

    • Photo: Julie Watts

      Julie Watts answered on 10 Jul 2020:

      Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could? Sadly, this is unlikely as radiation does damage cells as mentioned in the other comment. Knowing it is probably impossible does not stop me enjoying superhero films : )

      Having spent some time looking into the human brain, there are some strange things that can go wrong if particular areas of the brain become damaged, and some people are just born with unusual bodies. For example, there is a brain condition called synaesthesia where people’s senses become mixed, so they may experience colour as sound, or words as taste. It is also possible to be unable to remember faces, there was a book written about this called The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. These conditions are thankfully very rare.

      There are still lots of things we do not know about the human body and mind, which is why scientists are needed!

      Your question is great and leads me to think about genetic modification and gene editing.
      I would ask you in return: if we could give superpowers, does that mean we should?

    • Photo: Heather Walton

      Heather Walton answered on 10 Jul 2020:

      I’m not sure, radiation can cause changes to your DNA so can cause changes in your body and how it works, but we’d have to ask a biologist whether that could give you superpowers or not!

    • Photo: Tiffany Chan

      Tiffany Chan answered on 10 Jul 2020:

      Very unlikely – you’d become very sick if you were exposed to radioactivity!

    • Photo: Alex Ttofi

      Alex Ttofi answered on 10 Jul 2020:

      Realistically & factually no
      But should never stop comics, books, films & other arts and most importantly your dreams and imagination. Without these the world would not be as fun and just be plain boring!

    • Photo: Aisling Ryan

      Aisling Ryan answered on 14 Jul 2020:

      Unfortunately that isn’t possible, but I think movies like Spiderman are still very enjoyable to watch and allow your imagination to run free 🙂 Movies and books are a great way of taking something that isn’t possible in real life and making it exciting. They are a great escape and it would be really cool if the ideas were true, but if it was true we would already have a few superheroes flying around the place by now!!

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