One of the fun things about comic book superpowers is trying to figure out how they’d really work… and why they really would never work at all.

So how does Superman do it! He can see through buildings and clothing (he checks out Lois Lane’s underwear in Superman 1 – more on this later). Many have attempted to answer this question of the ages yet few have explored this in as much depth as J.B. Pittenger who published a study in the journal Perception back in the stone ages (1983) entitled “On the plausibility of Superman’s x-ray vision.”

So why would someone go to all the trouble of finding out why X-ray vision could never work the way it does in the comics? It’s less about advancing the cause of science and more about educating students about their own vision:

The contrast between human vision and Superman’s x-ray vision can be useful in helping students understand the importance to vision of the physical nature of light and its interaction with the air and objects in the environment.

Human vision has evolved to make use of several physical properties of ‘visible’ light: over short distances it passes largely unchanged through air, thus making air nearly invisible’ it is reflected by most surfaces in the environment, thus allowing them to be visible’ and the reflection is only partial, thus structuring the light so as to provide information to the perceiver.

I’ve always found myself a bit irritated by pop-science books that purport to explain “the science of super-heroes” or “the science of Harry Potter” or “the science of this-that-and-the-other” — but they’re actually considered good things among a number of scientists who know that their real purpose is to get younger readers interested in science.

I’ve still got a handful of comics to review from last week, but things unexpectedly came up last night and gave me no time to write up some proper reviews. So instead, let’s just take a moment to thank our lucky stars that the age of 2,000-pound rodents is over.

Uruguayan scientists say they have uncovered fossil evidence of the biggest species of rodent ever found, one that scurried across wooded areas of South America about 4 million years ago, when the continent was not connected to North America.

A herbivore, the beast may have been a contemporary, and possibly prey, of saber-toothed cats — a prehistoric version of Tom and Jerry.

For those afraid of rodents, forget hopping on a chair. Its huge skull, more than 20 inches (50 centimeters) long, suggested a beast more than 8 feet (2.4 meters) long and weighing between 1,700 and 3,000 pounds (750 and 1,350 kilograms).

Although British newspapers variously described it as a mouse or a rat, researchers say the animal, named Josephoartigasia monesi, actually was more closely related to a guinea pig or porcupine.

“These are totally different from the rats and mice we’re accustomed to,” said Bruce Patterson, the curator of mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago, adding that it was the biggest rodent he had ever heard of.

An eight-foot-long guinea pig. Imagine finding that in your pantry sometime…

Well, it’s not quite on the scale that your average monster insects in comics or ’50s sci-fi movies are, but this bug is still awfully big…

A fearsome fossil claw discovered in Germany belonged to the biggest bug ever known, scientists announced Tuesday.

“We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, supersized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies,” he added. “But we never realized, until now, just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were.”

“This is an amazing discovery,” Braddy said.

The find shows that arthropods — animals such as insects, spiders, and crabs, which have hard external skeletons, jointed limbs, and segmented bodies — once grew much larger than previously thought, said paleobiologist Simon Braddy of the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

The size of a large crocodile, the 390-million-year-old sea scorpion was the top predator of its day, slicing up fish and cannibalizing its own kind in coastal swamp waters, fossil experts say.

Jaekelopterus rhenaniae measured some 8.2 feet (2.5 meters) long, scientists estimate, based on the length of its 18-inch (46-centimeter), spiked claw.

That’s over eight feet long, people. Almost as tall as I am! It all just goes to prove: giant underwater prehistoric lobster-scorpions are bad news and should be stomped on as often as possible, preferably while screaming shrilly.

Yes, comics on your cell phone!

The thing that amazes me the most about this story… is that it took so long for anyone to think of it.

Sean Demory realized a long-held dream of becoming a published comic book writer when “Thunder Road,” a post-apocalyptic adventure he developed with artist Steven Sanders, was released.

“I’ve been plugging away and pitching things for 15-20 years,” Demory said. “This is the first one that landed in fertile soil.”

But don’t look for the tales of Merritt and his buddies on the shelves of a comic book store or even the Internet. “Thunder Road” is the first comic book released in the U.S. exclusively on a cell phone, part of a lineup of mobile comic books offered by Kansas City-based uClick.

So you can get music on your cell phone, you can get weather, news, Internet, e-mail, radio broadcasts, video games, stocks, television shows, movies, YouTube, cameras, camcorders, and even (gasp!) telephone calls… and it took this long for somebody to say, “Wow, hey, we should stick some comics on these things!”

The comics companies aren’t even trying that hard to jump onto the bandwagon. As the article I linked to states, so far, they’ve just got some no-name comics and some out-of-print stuff like “Bone” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Can’t we at least get something current, like “Mary Worth”?!

Didn’t I see this in a movie somewhere?

Actually, despite the similarity to the arctic Fortress of Solitude in the “Superman” movies, this is a real cave in Mexico. The Cueva de los Cristales has some of the world’s largest known natural crystals — some of them as long as 36 feet. No, it’s definitely not ice. They’re gypsum crystals, formed over a few thousand years, thanks to mineral-rich water that used to fill the caverns and a constant temperature of 136 degrees.

Hopefully, they can figure out some way to preserve the cave — it’s in some danger from local mining, and it would be nice to see something that beautiful preserved.

(Link via Oliver Willis)

The best science is comic-book science

Though I doubt most people should want anything to do with comic book science (getting struck by lightning will never give you superspeed, and being bitten by radioactive spiders is a good way to get a radioactive spider bite), there are still some folks out there thinking about the places where science and comics intersect.

First, there’s biologist P.Z. Myers, who’s being reading Vertigo’s “Y: The Last Man,” which is about a disease that’s killed all but one man on the planet — and Dr. Myers has actually found a reference to a disease that does target males for elimination. Lucky for us (well, lucky for the male us), it only affects arthropods…

And here’s Polite Dissent, a comic book blog written by a doctor. Much of the emphasis is on how comics often mishandle medical terminology — incorrect anatomy, bad diagnoses, crazy medical procedures, etc. It’s grand fun to scroll through, really.

Remember the toddler I wrote about last month who had the genetic condition that allows him to really pile on the muscle?

Well, it turns out other animals can get that condition, too, including dogs. For example, there’s this one particular whippet named Wendy.

You see, this is what a normal whippet looks like.

And this is what Wendy looks like.

Hully chee, it’s the Hulk!

While you’re struggling to pick your jaw up off the floor, check out this article about Wendy.

The uber-muscled whippets are called “bullies,” not because of their nature — Wendy likes nothing better than a good back scratch and isn’t shy about sitting in your lap to ask for one — but because of their size. She’s about twice the weight of an average whippet, but with the same height and small narrow head — and the same size heart and lungs, which means she probably won’t live as long as normal whippets.

Hansen has had Wendy, now four, since she bought the dog from a Shawnigan Lake breeder when she was eight months old.

No word yet on whether Wendy can fly or has heat vision…

This article is a few weeks old, but it certainly seems relevant for this blog: a little kid named Liam Hoekstra is a superhuman prodigy!

Liam Hoekstra was hanging upside down by his feet when he performed an inverted sit-up, his shirt falling away to expose rippled abdominal muscles.

It was a display of raw power one might expect to see from an Olympic gymnast.

Liam is 19 months old.

(…)

Liam can run like the wind, has the agility of a cat, lifts pieces of furniture that most children his age couldn’t push across a slick floor and eats like there is no tomorrow — without gaining weight.

“He’s hungry for a full meal about every hour because of his rapid metabolism,” Hoekstra said. “He’s already eating me out of house and home.”

The kid has a genetic condition called myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy, which means that he’s got abnormal growth of his skeletal muscles. He’s immensely strong for his age, quick as lightning, has a light-speed metabolism, and almost no body fat. The condition doesn’t affect his heart, and as far as anyone knows, it has no negative side effects. Scientists think it’s pretty rare, but it’s only been discovered in the last few years, so they don’t yet know exactly how many people have it. The biggest problem for Liam is that a kid his age needs some body fat to develop properly, and his metabolism is cranked so high, it’s hard for him to put on fat at all.

Even better? The kid has the potential to be a real superhero — no, not flying around and fighting supervillains, but studying him could lead scientists and doctors to important new treatments.

Liam’s condition is more than a medical rarity: It could help scientists unlock the secrets of muscle growth and muscle deterioration. Research on adults who share Liam’s condition could lead to new treatments for debilitating ailments, such as muscular dystrophy and osteoporosis.

If researchers can control how the body produces and uses myostatin, the protein could become a powerful weapon in the pharmaceutical arsenal. It also could become a hot commodity among athletes looking to gain an edge, perhaps illegally, on the competition, experts said.

Give him another couple of decades, and there’s a pretty good chance we’ll see playing pro football. Don’t bet against him…

UPDATE: I just found an interesting photo of Liam:

That is a 19-month-old toddler doing a chin-up.

I would not want to be anywhere near when he has a temper tantrum.