Shouldn't this be in that other Superman thread? The one about him being gay?

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So this raises a perhaps more doable scientific question: is there anything about other stars' spectral emissions that might cause some sort of "enhancing" (or "weakening") in a human(oid) lifeform? I doubt there would be; I imagine the only change if you plunked a human being down a planet around, say, Vega is that said human would be very, very hot. :-)

But let's reverse engineer Supes, too. What would Kal-El's (or any being's) biology have to be like in order to take advantage of the difference between a G-class star and an M-class star? Imagine that he didn't have to be humanoid necessarily. Maybe just a giant jellyfish creature that had organic solar cells on its skin or something. What's the major difference between the light of a red sun and the light of a yellow sun?

Frequency content? I am not sure how that would change anything. Superman's chemical makeup changes depending on the sun he gets close to (something about the "density" of his "molecular structure" increasing).

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The Science of Superheroes

I read this book, but it didn't do much for me. It's written for people who know the comic book characters really well, but not much physics, while I knew the physics but not the characters.

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Oh look, the obligatory sequel: The Science of Supervillains. What, no 'The Non Science of Sidekicks/Henchmen' follow ups?

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The show aired on Discovery Channel here, last night. Some parts I found amusing, eg. pointing out the speed Superman would be travelling vs terminal velocity, when he catches Lois falling from the helicopter/Daily Planet building, in the 1979 (?) movie. I found the show to be worth a viewing, as it basically looks at Superman through it's different mediums over time and where, some attempts have been made to get some of the science right, while at other times, just ignoring some of the real world effects, some of his actions would have.

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If Superman gets his powers from earth's yellow sun, imagine how powerful he'd be if he was a nudist.

Personally I think that the fact that Superman has dozens of different powers is inelegant. I'd like to see all his powers explained in terms of one source. This would have to be the ability to control the movement through space of his own body and the things he touches. This would explain how he is able to fly and why he doesn't slice Lois Lane into three pieces when he catches her falling off a building. He is able to cancel her inertia. It also explains how he is able to pick up huge objects such as boats without just drilling a hole through them. When he is shot he isn't hurt because he controls the movement of his own flesh and the bullet that hits him. His heat vision operates by causing small parts of an object to rapidly move resulting in friction. His freezing breath works the opposite way. His x-ray vision is the result of him sensing movement at a distance, but he can only sense a certain amount of mass so lead tends to ruin this ability. Kryptonite interferes with whatever it is that gives Superman his power. And to cap it off, I think Superman should come from another universe, not just another planet. That way he doesn't have to follow our physics.

That makes sense. He would have to have some inertia control to fly--so catching Lois isn't a problem.

Hmm. But you know what they say: "When in Rome..."

Still, I like the way you're thinking. All Superman's "powers" being applications of one specific telekinetic-type power.

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That makes as much sense as anything. Once you posit the telekinesis - and who knows where that comes from (maybe zero point energy would be a good pseudoscientific explanation?) then the rest can fit almost logically, with red sunlight and kryptonite interfering with the PK field.

Anybody read the "Wild Cards" series? They did a lot of that. There was an alien virus, most people infected died, but a few survived. Out of those who survived, most would become "Jokers" with horrible mutations but sometimes superpowers. A very few became "Aces" with superpowers and no horrible mutations. The powers always seemed to reflect something in the personality, and limitations tended to be psychological. You might have a woman with wings that thinks she can only fly by using her wings, but a mention that the wings aren't really functional, far too small for aerodynamic flight. Her real ability would be a restricted form of PK defined by her personality.

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Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Along the same lines Supe's "x ray vision" could be a form of clairvoyance and the lead bit is just a psychological limitation. Or lead interferes with ESP. Or something.

Yeah, it doesn't explain anything at all, but at least we get a good buzzword out of it, and since it's ESP we don't have to explain anything!

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Ya know...if the guy can manage an instellar flight on his own back to Krypton, you think spending a week or so around Sirius on the way back would do wonders for his power levels...

I think his visual abilities are probably just bad science in the story.

Neither ultrasound nor radar can explain color sensitive aspects of this vision.

Per the first Superman movie. A question asked of him by Lois on her rooftop concerning her underwear color is stymied because she's standing behind a lead planter. After a few minutes of conversation, she steps out from behind it and he blurts out "Pink" to answer her question, catching her offguard.

Well, here's a pretty good take on the silly associations a thread like this can give you.

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