Superscience

kw: book reviews, speculative fiction, science

Superman has been cool for all my life, and a few years ago he finally got a stamp. Now there's a book that outlines the scientific basis for his startling abilities. Mark Wolverton, a science writer, and Roger Stern, a comics writer, have joined forces to produce The Science of Superman: The Official Guide to the Science of the Last Son of Krypton.

How different from Earth people does a humanoid alien such as Kal-El need to be, to be able to fly, to see through walls, to bend steel beams, to lift a locomotive, and to hear a cry for help from miles away? As it turns out, quite a lot. The authors' job is to show that it is not totally impossible.

That's a tall order. That is why this book isn't found in the 500 section (Dewey Decimal for Science) of the library, but on the SF shelves. Tongues firmly in cheek, so firmly as to threaten their teeth, the authors have dived into the murky waters of hand-waving science of the highest order. We all want to believe in Superman. They want to help us do so…

A few of the things Superman needs to fulfill the DC Comics menu of his powers:

• A thicker skin, probably fortified with titanium or other strengthening materials, so he is (more) invulnerable.
• Hearing at least as sensitive as that of a barn owl, which can hear a mouse's heartbeat from thirty feet away.
• A special organ that lets him manipulate gravity, which underlies his flying ability and feats of strength that would crush even a 300-pound steel manikin.
• Tunable vision from far infrared to far ultraviolet, and lots of extra brain power for processing what he sees into the misnamed "x-ray vision".

There are a number of others, but each of these requires quite a stretch beyond known science. For example, tunable vision: Some humans can see a little ways into the infrared spectrum. The problem is the low energy of IR photons. It is hard to contrive a molecule that can catch an IR photon and turn it into a nerve impulse. 40 years ago I participated on a project to make a TV camera that could "see" at much longer wavelengths, of around two microns. It utilized cesium chloride, which is hard to come by and is unstable except in a vacuum.

Then there's far UV. Take the yellow lens out of the eye, and any cataract patient will tell you they see more blue, and farther into the UV, such that mercury vapor lights are almost blinding, and they can see the UV that leaks from fluorescent lights directly. Much deeper into the UV, though, the radiation gets damaging (which is why we wear sunscreen). Even a super being would be hard pressed to avoid eye damage trying to look at enough soft x-rays to form a visible image. Human eyes can detect x-rays, but are soon destroyed by that amount of radiation. And a more important point: x-rays are notoriously hard to focus. The most effective "lens" for x-rays is a piece of aluminum a few inches thick with a lot of holes drilled crosswise in a precise way.

As for Superman being able to project x-rays or heat rays from his eyes, the authors have to reject that in favor of more hand-waving about "biometric fields." Don't get me wrong, hand-waving isn't all bad. Nobelist Dick Feynman was a hand-waver extraordinaire; it is a great way to convey concepts without getting into time-consuming technical details. But the technical details have to exist! That's why this is speculative fiction, very enjoyable speculative fiction.

The authors' closing paragraphs dwell on Kal-El's moral fiber. He had to have an amazing level of ethical understanding; how else could he avoid selfishly dominating the rest of humanity? Perhaps Superman's morality is his most amazing superpower.