• Question: Is it theoretically possible to replicate the superpowers which we see so often in movies?

    Asked by _Elizabeth_ to Ellen, Elliot, Hazel, Rupesh, Thomas on 15 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by MRmanGuy, Maccy J.
    • Photo: Elliot Jokl

      Elliot Jokl answered on 15 Jun 2016:


      Thanks for the great question!

      Sadly, I don’t think so. I think the closest we can get is by designing machines that can make people stronger and help them to do things they can’t normally do. For example, there are people in the military designing robot suits for people to wear, to help them lift really heavy stuff, which is quite cool.

      That said, I think it is possible to improve humans by using biology – we can edit people’s DNA and that might help us stop certain diseases and make people healthier. But it is very tricky at the moment, and there are lots of people who think that we shouldn’t change people’s DNA in case it isn’t safe or causes some nasty side-effects. But I think we will see some interesting developments in the future. For example, scientists have changed the DNA of white blood cells in some patients so that they fight cancer. I think that is really clever, but maybe not as cool as super human strength or being able to fly…

    • Photo: Hazel Garvie-Cook

      Hazel Garvie-Cook answered on 15 Jun 2016:


      It wouldn’t be possible to get a lot of the superpowers we see in movies sadly. But it’s amazing that we can now use computer generated images to get lots of things from our imagination onto the big screen. The CGI that we see today is the result of years of hard work by computer scientists.

    • Photo: Thomas Biggans

      Thomas Biggans answered on 16 Jun 2016:


      I think it depends which superpower we’re talking about. I don’t think we could change a human so they could control the weather or other people’s minds but I think it’s in the realms of possibility to give someone super strength or radically alter them before birth so they grow wings and fly. If we could do this though should we? Is it safe? Is it right?

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