• Question: captain america underwent an experiment to give him super strength. could this ever be possible in a human and if so could you think of a way in which this could be done?

    Asked by tblow to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 19 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Well there are drugs called anabolic steroids that people take that increase their muscle size and strength. These drugs are designed to mimic the hormone testosterone. They cause increased protein synthesis in muscle areas e.g. biceps etc. And various studies show that they enhance athletic performance and overall strength.

      However these drugs have many side effects relating to mood swings, aggression and depression so I guess our super hero would be more like the Hulk!!

    • Photo: Derek McKay-Bukowski

      Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      It may also be that humans are given extra strength with biomechanics. That is, some form of robotics is added into a person to make them stronger. Already, people are given hip replacements when they get old and weak. There is no reason why something like this couldn’t be done to enhance people beyond their existing normal strengths.

    • Photo: Tim Millar

      Tim Millar answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      A rich horse owner wanted to win the grand national so he asked a biologist a chemist and a physicist to help him train the horse. The biologist after many hours measuring the horses physiology and genetics returned to the owner and confessed “even with all I have done I cannot guarantee your horse will win.”

      The chemist worked in the lab for many days and weeks to make a chemical that could make the horse run faster but alas after all the effort they returned to the owner and confessed “even with all I have done I cannot guarantee your horse will win.”

      The physicist went away and thought and calculated and ran simulations until he burst in to the owners house shouting “eureka, I have done it, I can make you horse win the race.” The owner turned to him and asked how and the physicists replied “its easy, as long as your horse is a sphere moving through a vacuum”.

      (And what the others said too)

    • Photo: Dalya Soond

      Dalya Soond answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      tblow, what’s the obsession with superhuman powers? Aren’t we powerful enough as it is? Have you seen all the cool things humans have done in this world? And also the massive amounts of damage? Just with their regular human powers.

    • Photo: Tom Crick

      Tom Crick answered on 19 Jun 2011:

      Not with current technology — even using steroids, human growth hormones, etc, there are serious side effects (the human body is not really built for that).

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