Could Captain America and the Incredible Hulk exist in real life?

Have you ever wondered if the special serum that grants Captain America superpowers or the radiation blast responsible for transforming the Incredible Hulk could ever be recreated in real life? After all, in both cases, there's a whole scientific question behind metamorphoses, isn't it? However, how far does science really support what happens in fiction?

Sebastian Alvarado, a researcher at Stanford University, decided to consider whether what we see in comics - or on movie screens - could happen to flesh-and-blood people someday, reaching very interesting conclusions.

captain America

As you know, Captain America was born out of a top secret project led by the US government during World War II. It all started after skinny Steve Rogers - who was eager to defend his country - was considered too fragile to be sent to the front lines.

Instead of going to war, Rogers was recruited to participate in an experiment in which he was injected with a mysterious substance and was exposed to a type of radiation called "Vita Rays" that made him a muscular soldier with strength, intelligence. and superhuman vigor.

In real life

According to Alvarado, although the formula of the supersolder serum is unknown, it is possible to deduce that the key to its operation lies in the use of ultra-modern techniques for altering the human genome. In real life, scientists have already identified which genes are involved in increasing muscle mass and improving oxygen transport throughout the body.

In addition, tools for turning specific genes on and off have also been developed, so making humans more muscular and incredibly fast with more strategically oriented minds and more physical vigor would be theoretically possible.

Photosensitive Capsules

The "instructions" for genetic manipulation could be introduced through photosensitive capsules - which are being developed by today's pharmaceutical industry - and released when subjected to certain wavelengths of light to take action. So, after taking the supersolder's serum, the candidate for Captain America would only have to get into a chamber and be bombarded with real-life Vita Rays .

The amazing thing is that, according to Alvarado, all of these technologies are already being tested in lab mice, and while it is not yet possible to employ the same techniques in humans, it is always fun to speculate about their use.

Amazing Hulk Off Screen

Hulk's story is a little different from that of Captain America, as, as you may recall, Bruce Banner did not recruit to participate in a secret project to become a superhero. In fact, the character was an extremely intelligent physicist who was hit by an absurd explosion of gamma rays. Banner survives radiation, but turns into an absurdly strong green giant under certain circumstances.

According to Alvarado, to explain the Incredible Hulk's metamorphosis, we need to use a little more imagination. According to the researcher, when gamma radiation hits DNA, it causes serious damage to its structure. Our body is able to repair some of this damage without molecules losing many of their functions.

However, if the damage is too great - as would be expected from an individual exposed to a giant gamma-ray burst - it is possible that the DNA will reorganize with new genetic instructions. In the case of Banner, instead of these commands being activated through light, as with Captain America, they seem to react to the hormones released by the physicist's body when he becomes nervous, turning him into a green beast.

Anger green

To explain Hulk's skin color, Alvarado relies on the dramatic process Banner's body undergoes during its transformation. Everyone knows that after a nice blow, it is common for bruises to form - which turn greenish - as a result. This is due to the death of red blood cells that, as they degrade, release hemoglobin, a protein that allows the body to carry oxygen.

One of the hemoglobin compounds is a molecule called biliverdin which, in turn, can cause blood to turn green and is responsible for the characteristic hue at the extremities of the bruises. Thus, for Alvarado, Hulk's reason for being green may be the result of the trauma Banner's body undergoes during metamorphosis, which causes a full-body hematoma.

Moreover, if we are especially creative, we can still rely on this justification to explain Hulk's incredible strength by imagining that Banner's blood contains some kind of green compound - capable of carrying more oxygen than hemoglobin to the muscles of the physicist. .