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The Science Behind Superpowers: Could They Ever Be Real? · The Infographics Show Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: You know, you might think of superheroes as purely make believe,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: kind of confined to comic books and movie screens.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: We see these incredible fictional powers like everywhere TV shows,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: video games, action figures. But it got my thinking, is
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the whole idea of human superpowers really all that far fetched?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: That's a great question, and it's exactly what we're diving
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: into today. On beyond infographics, we're aiming to go deeper
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: than just the surface level explore the surprising reality behind
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: it all. We'll look at genetics, evolution, even learn skills
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: and technology to see how superhumans can actually be.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Right, I've been looking into some really amazing stuff myself,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: thinking about what actually makes these extraordinary abilities possible, and honestly,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: what I've found really lenges our everyday idea of what
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: people are capable of.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so let's start with that core idea. Do real
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: superpowers exist? It sounds like pure sci fi, doesn't it.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: It really does.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: But you know, there are these documented cases that make
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: you stop and think, like, well, people with memories that
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: are just incredibly detailed, almost unbelievable photographic recall, or individuals
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: who perceive the world differently, like seeing sounds as colors
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: just chromosthesia.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Oh right, synesthesia stuff exactly.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: And then there are these sort of magnetic people where
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: objects just seem to stick to their skin.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: It's wild, isn't it. And the interesting bit often is
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: the potential genetic link, right.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly For those magnetic people. Sometimes it seems to
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: come down to just having skin with like unusually high friction.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: So it's not really magnetism, not.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: In the traditional sense. It lets things like glass and
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: plastic stick, not just metal. Makes you wonder what else
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: is hiding in.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Our DNA, which I guess brings us straight to our genes.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Right, the power coded inside us. Think about Liam Huckstra,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: known as the world's strongest kid.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I read about him doing pull ups as
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a toddler.
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  Speaker 2: Basically just incredible strength, and it's linked to a myostatin deficiency.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Explain that a bit, sure.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: So myostatin is this gene that normally puts the brakes
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: on muscle growth, stops you getting too bulky. In his case,
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  Speaker 2: those breaks are essentially off, so his muscles can just
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: grow almost unrestricted. It's a real life version of super strength.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: The key insight there is how one little genetic tweak
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: can have such a massive impact on physical ability.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. It really shows how these tiny biological variations
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: can look like superhuman feats from the outside. But it's
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: not just about these individual genetic quarks. Is it like
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: evolution itself seems to have given whole groups of people
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: some pretty extraordinary abilities. Oh?
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, evolution is like the ultimate source of adaptation superpowers.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Look at the shirp of people on the Himalayas.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Right, living at incredibly high altitudes.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Exactly around fourteen thousand feet and they've been there for
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: something like six thousand years. The air up there has
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: significantly less oxygen and.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: They just cope, yeah, without issue pretty much.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: And it's not just getting used to it like a
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: climatization for climbers. Their bodies are genuinely adapted over generations.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: So how does that work? What's different?
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Well, research shows they function fine with about forty percent
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: less oxygen, but crucially, unlike most people whose bodies respond
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: to low oxygen by making way too many red blood cells.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Which causes altitude sickness.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah right, the SCHRPA actually maintain low red blood cell
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: levels instead. Their mitochondria, the little energy factories in their
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: cells have become incredibly efficient at using the oxygen that
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: is available.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: So it's a fundamental difference in their energy systems.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Exactly, a really profound evolutionary adaptation. Truly remarkable.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: That's an incredible example. And you mentioned another group before,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the baja Ah.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, the Bajow often called the Sinomads in Southeast Asia.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: What's their superpower?
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Their diving ability is just off the charts. We're talking
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  Speaker 2: deaths of up to two hundred and thirty feet wow,
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  Speaker 2: and staying underwater for maybe thirteen minutes, all without scuba
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  Speaker 2: gear or anything.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Thirteen minutes.
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  Speaker 2: How well, Again, it looks like a potential genetic adaptation
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: specifically relating to their spleens fair spleen. Yeah, studies suggest
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: the Bojo might have a genetic mutation leading to significantly
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: larger spleens compared to say, neighboring farming groups.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: And a larger spleen helps how the.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Spleen stores oxygenated red blood cells. So the theory is
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: when a Bajow diver goes down, they're larger spleen contracts,
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  Speaker 2: releasing this extra reserve of oxygen rich blood into their system.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Ah, like a built in oxygen tank.
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  Speaker 2: Kind of similar to adaptations we see in deep diving
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: marine mammals. Actually, it strongly points to a genetic basis
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: for this incredible underwater endurance.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. So these aren't just tricks the learned. It's
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: biology shaped over time.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Seems that way.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: But okay, it's not all genes and evolution, right, Some
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: seemingly superhuman things seem to be more about training learning.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: That's a really important point. Yes, While some ability seem hardwired,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: others show just how adaptable the human body and mind
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: can be.
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  Speaker 1: Like echolocation using sound to see like bats exactly.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: We associate it with animals, but humans can learn it too.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Think of Ben.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Underwood, right, the young man who lost his sight.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, sadly he's passed away now, but he was incredible.
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  Speaker 2: He mastered echolocation so well he could play sports, football, basketball, ride.
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  Speaker 1: A skateboard just by listening to echoes, just.
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  Speaker 2: By interpreting the echoes of clicks he made with his mouth.
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  Speaker 2: It really highlights the brain's neuroplasticity, its ability to rewire itself,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: create new ways to sense the world.
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  Speaker 1: It's like developing a whole new sense. That's mind blowing.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: And then there's controlling your own body temperature.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Right Tumo meditation techniques.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: That's the whim Hoff thing, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: The Iceman he's definitely the most famous example. Yeah, he
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: can withstand extreme cold climbed part of everest in basically
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: just shorts by using these meditation techniques to consciously raise
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: his core body temperature. It shows this amazing potential for
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: mind over matter, control over autonomic functions.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And what about someone like Alex Hanald, the free solo
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: climber scaling huge cliffs with no ropes? Is that physical
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: or mental?
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  Speaker 2: That's what's so fascinating about his case. It seems more mental.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Brain scans reportedly showed his amygdala.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: The fear center, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: The part of the brain heavily involved in fear processing.
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  Speaker 2: It apparently showed a much weaker response to scary images
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: compared to control.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Subjects, so she just doesn't feel fear the same way.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: It might be more complex, but one suggestion is that
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: it could be the result of years and years of
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: intense mental conditioning, practicing something incredibly dangerous until his brain adapted.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: So like a learned superpower for managing fear potentially.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it implies even our basic emotion responses might be
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: be trainable, changeable.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, so we've got these incredible real world examples, genetic quirks,
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  Speaker 1: evolutionary marvels, learn skills. They definitely push the boundaries of normal.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: But what about the classic stuff, the things we really
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: think of as superpowers from fiction? Superhuman strength, flying telekinesis, invisibility,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: to lepathy, regeneration. How close are we really right?
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: That's where the gap between science fact and science ficsion
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: often gets pretty wide. Let's take super strength like the
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Hulk exactly. While we see people like Liam Hunkstrow with
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: unusual strength due to that myostatin thing, the kind of
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: power hull cast lifting tanks, that's way beyond our biology.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: There are real limits on muscle fibers, nerve activation, energy production.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: What about hysterical strength You hear stores about people lifting
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: cars and emergencies.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: That seems to be a real phenomenon. Yeah, a massive
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: adrenaline surge temporarily bypassing normal limits, but it often comes
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  Speaker 2: with a serious physical cost to and muscles injuries. It's
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: not sustainable or controllable, like in the comics that.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Science is looking at ways to boost strength right beyond
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: just hitting the gym.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure, this theoretical talk about genetic enhancements like
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: deliberately targeting that myostatin.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Gy and we mentioned to make everyone stronger.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Potentially, But I mean there are huge ethical questions there obviously,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: we just don't know the long term effects. True technology
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: offers another route exoskeletons, powered.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Suits like Iron Man.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Well, maybe not quite that sophisticated yet, but projects like
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: the Tallow Suit for the military aim to augment soldier
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: strength and endurance. Biotechnology, advanced materials, these could push the boundaries,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: but true comic book levels super strength still a long
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: way off.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, what about flying? The dream of soaring through the.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Air, Yeah, another big one, but the physics are tough.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: For humans to fly like a bird, you need lift
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: to overcome gravity, our anatomy, our muscle power to weight ratio.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: It's just not suited for generating that kind of lift
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: with wings.
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  Speaker 1: So no flapping our arms and taking.
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  Speaker 2: Off afraid not. Now technology gives us options like jet packs.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: We're seeing more personal flight devices being developed.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, those look fun but kind of dangerous.
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  Speaker 2: And they have limitations right fuel how long they can
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: fly control noise. Yeah, they're not exactly like Superman zipping
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  Speaker 2: around silently.
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  Speaker 1: Good point.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: More sci fi concepts like electromagnetic levitation like maglev trains
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  Speaker 2: need huge infrastructure and power and actual anti gravity. That's
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: purely speculative. We have no current scientific basis for negating.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Gravity, so strapping on tech is our best bet for
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  Speaker 1: flight for now. No natural evolution giving us wings anytime
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: soon really unlikely. Yeah, okay, how about moving stuff with
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: your mind? Telekinesis right.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Despite a lot of research and parapsychology over the years,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: there's just no solid, repeatable scientific evidence that psychokinesis is real.
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  Speaker 2: Reported cases usually have other explanations. Subtle muscle movements come
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: from bias, sometimes fraud.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: So no bending spoons with brain power.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Alone doesn't seem like it. However, technology is getting us
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: closer in a different way. Brain machine interfaces or BMIs
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: controlling computers with thought exactly or even more directly. We've
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: seen incredible progress where people who are paralyzed can control
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: robotic arms or cursors just by thinking about the movement.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Electrodes read brain signals, algorithms translate them into commands.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: That is amazing, almost like tech assisted telekinesis KAIDA.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's still quite basic compared to levitating objects across
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: the room like in Star Wars, but the potential is there.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: As BMIs get more sophisticated, maybe we'll see more complex
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: control of external devices using just thought.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: That's incredible. What about invisibility? HG. Wells, Harry Potter?
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Invisibility The science there is all about controlling light to
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: be invisible. An object needs to not reflect or absorb light.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Light has to flow around it as if it weren't there.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: How could that even work?
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: The big buzz is around meta materials. These are artificially
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: engineered materials with structures designed at a tiny scale to
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: manipulate light waves in ways natural materials can't.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: So invisibility cloaks.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: We've seen rudimentary cloaks demonstrated, yes, usually working for specific
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: wavelengths like microwaves, or maybe a very narrow band of
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: visible light, often from specific angles.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Ah so not quite a throw it on and disappear
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: a cloak yet.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: No, definitely not. Creating a broadband cloak for all visible
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: light that works from any angle is a huge engineering challenge.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: We're talking nanoscale precision. There's also active camouflage, using cameras
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: and projectors to just play the background onto.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: The object link in some sci fi movies.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but that has its own issues with viewing angle's
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: power complexity. So true, practical invisibility still very much a
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: work in progress.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, getting closer maybe, But tricky telepathy reading minds communicating
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: thought to thought.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Again, traditional telepathy, like Professor X, has no scientific backing,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: often explained by things like cold reading, intuition, subtle cues, coincidence,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: psychological stuff.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: But what about neuroscience? Can't we see thoughts in brain scams?
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Now we're getting better at decoding brain activity. Yes, Using
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: things like fMRI, researchers can identify patterns linked to seeing
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: certain images or thinking specific words, or even reconstructing basic
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: visual scenes someone was looking at. It's amazing research.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: So could we use that for communication?
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Well, people are trying. There have been experiments using BMIs
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: to link brains, sending very simple signals like a binary
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: code for yes or no or a basic word from
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: one person's brain activity over the internet to stimulate another
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: person's brain.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Brain to brain communication.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: In a very very rudimentary form. Yes, it's nowhere near
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: transmitting complex thoughts or conversations, but it opens the door
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: to the possibility maybe far in the future.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: That raises some serious ethical questions though, doesn't it? Oh?
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, privacy, misuse, mind control. The ethical implications of advanced
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: neurotechnology and potential to lepathy deck are massive and need
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: careful consideration.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, Okay. Last big one regeneration and immortality healing
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: like wolverine living forever.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Right, Well, some animals are amazing regenerators. Salamander's regrowing limbs,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: starfish regrowing whole bodies. Human abilities are much more limited.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: We heal cuts, men bones. Our liver has some regenerative capacity,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: but not regrowing.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Limbs, but science is working on it. Stem cells and
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: stuff big time.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Regenerative medicine is a huge field using stem cells, those
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: versatile cells that can become different tissue types to repair
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: damage from injury or disease. Tissue engineering is progressing to
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: growing skin and labs working towards complex organs.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Could we enhance our natural regeneration.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: That's the hope. Gene therapy could potentially target pathways involved
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: in healing and regeneration, maybe boosting our natural abilities and
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: research into aging itself. Things like Telomere's cellular senescence aims
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: to understand and potentially slow down or even reverse aging processes.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Which leads to the idea of immortality.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the ultimate goal for some, whether it's biological immortality
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: through stopping aging or more speculative ideas like mind uploading
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: transferring consciousness to a computer. Whoa These concepts push not
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: just scientific boundaries, but philosophical and ethical ones too. What
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: does it mean to be human if you can live
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: forever or exist as data?
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Deep questions? So it feels like, while we aren't quite
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: living in a comic book world now yet a science
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: and technology are definitely pushing us towards abilities that would
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: have seems like pure magic not that long.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Ago, absolutely, which also brings up the slightly scary side.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: How So, Well, if these abilities, whether there are genetic enhancements,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: advanced tech brain interfaces, become reality, who controls them? What
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: happens if they fall into the wrong hands private companies,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: military applications creating super soldiers. There's potential for misuse.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the responsibility that comes with that kind of power
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: is enormous.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Exactly So, while true fictional superpowers are mostly still out
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: of reach. Science is unlocking extraordinary human potential, but we
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: need to be really thoughtful about how we develop and
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: use it.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: So as we kind of wrap up this steep dive
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: on Beyond Infographics, it feels like the main takeaway is, well,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: human abilities, whether they're from our genes, our evolution, or
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: things we learn, they can be pretty super already in.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Their own way. Maybe not always flashy like in the movies,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: but genuinely extraordinary.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the potential within us is maybe greater than.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: We think precisely, And hey, if you found this exploration interesting,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: maybe you could give Beyond Infographics a five star rating.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: It helps others find the show.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Definitely please do, and it leaves us with a final thought,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: I guess for everyone listening, Yeah, as we keep learning
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: more about our own biology or genetics, and as these
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: technologies keep advancing, what will you consider the new definition
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: of superhuman? What possibilities excite you or maybe even worry you.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: It's definitely something to chew on. What does the future
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: human look like?
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, lots to think about. Thanks for joining us
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: for this deep dive