Random Amazing Real-Life Superhero Gadgets & Powers (10 items)

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  (#8) Can Attract Metal, Like a Magnet

  THE SUPERHERO: Magneto (who is more of a villain most of the time.)

  THE SUPERPOWER: To attract, control, and stick to metal. Magneto is the master of magnetism and can manipulate metal at will.

  THE REAL LIFE SUPERPOWER:
  73-year-old Liew Tho Lin of Malaysia has been able to magnetize his skin for the past 10 years. He noticed his ability while working in construction, and his tools started sticking to him while he was shirtless.

  Sort of like the moisture-induced suction of the Spider-Man contraption, Liew Tho's skin has an extra suction property to it that helps metal and other objects stick to his skin.

  He can also pull a one-ton car using an iron suctioned to his stomach, which adds extra coolness to his ability.

  His powers are "not an illusion," scientists said when trying to investigate into Liew Thow's body ability, and while his abilities definitely seem magnetic, they're actually a suction-based nature.

  Click here for the full story and additional pictures of Liew Thow Lin showing off his powers.
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  (#3) Military Develops Spider-Man Gloves/Boots

  THE SUPERHERO: Spider-Man

  THE SUPERPOWER: The power to walk up/climb walls via his hands and feet.

  THE TECHNOLOGY:
  Engineers at Cornell University (in New York) have apparently invented a great palm-sized device that uses the surface tension in water to make a reverse-adhesive bond to stick to glass, wood, and brick.

  They're getting close in transferring this to gloves and shoes to allow the bearer to climb up, Spider-Man style, the flattest of surfaces.

  The technology was actually inspired by a Palmetto tortoise beetle in Florida that uses the surface tension from tiny, pore-sized droplets of secreted oil at the top of its legs to climb up and stick to surfaces.

  So basically, they are looking to insect technology to make a Spider-Man type weapon/gadget; who would've thought, right?

  They found, though, that the more holes they had, the stronger the suction got. These holes, if made even tinier (1000x the width of a human hair, to be exact) would have the suction power to hold an entire person.

  But would they unstick? If the force is strong enough to hold a person, wouldn't you jerk back so hard that not only would you unstick, but fall off whatever building you were climbing? Well, no, because the scientists were actually able to use that electrical field to reverse the suction, thus becoming unstuck on demand. Just like Spider-Man.

  Start stitching your suits, guys. Start stitching your suits.

  The gloves would work by using an electrical field to pump small amounts of water through microscopic holes.

  Source

  Honorable Mentions:
  High School student invents suction technology using vacuums

  Guy dressed as Spider-Man climbs skyscraper with his bare hands.

  The famous French "Spiderman" (hyphen is never used when referring to him for some reason) who wears no costume, but climbs insanely high buildings with just his hands.
• (#5) Child's Rare Genetic Condition Causes Hulk-like Super Strength

  THE SUPERHERO: The Hulk

  THE SUPERPOWER: Super strength, impenetrability via genetic mutation.

  THE REAL-LIFE SUPERPOWER:
  Click here for the news report on this child and the genetic condition that gives him super strength.

  Click here for a great video of the child exhibiting his strength (3rd video down).

  A rare genetic condition is giving 3-year-old Liam Hoekstra, Michigan, the ability to eat like a horse and not gain any weight whatsoever, lift large furniture that most adults would have trouble lifting, and increase in muscle strength by just living out his normal life. At 3 years old. He's a toddler.

  His condition was first suspected when he (no foolin' here) was able to walk at an early age... Just how early? Two days. The child was able to walk after only two days of life.

  He can also do the Olympic move called the Iron Cross where they hold themselves up with only their hands.

  The genetic disease/condition that the kid has is called Myostatin-Related Muscle Hypertrophy. There have only been 100 cases of this in the world.

  There's a defect in his genetic code that allows for excessive muscle growth. So the defect blocks the antibody that usually inhibits muscle growth in the human body, so it's almost a double-negative situation in which the disease blocks the blocker, therefore giving the child incredible muscle strength.

  There are no medical downsides and his heart will be unaffected. The only downside is that he eats six enormous meals a day. He also has a six pack, without even really working out, and looks otherwise no different from other children: his muscles are just that much stronger.

  Look at those guns!

  So medically, if they were able to replicate this condition, it would be open to abuse by athletes, but also open for extremely important use by people with diseases like muscular dystrophy.

  
  
• 

  (#4) Qijong Master Can Create Heat with Hands

  THE SUPERHERO: The Human Torch (or hey, Carrie also works)

  THE SUPERPOWER: Controlling heat/fire and emitting it at will, aka Pyrokinesis.

  THE REAL-LIFE SUPERPOWER/ABILITY:
  A Qigong Master uses his Chi energy to create heat using minimal friction, and is actually able to steam water using his hand without even touching it. He uses heat healing to help people with back problems.

  Using an infrared camera, "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" shows the man's hands directly applying heat to objects using nothing but his bare hands. He can increase and decrease the heat of water, or any moist object, at will. He was able to, using only his hand, generate heat of up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

  He can heat a water on a damp towel to 10 degrees below boiling point, and actually walk on suspended sheets of paper without breaking them because, according to him, he makes himself lighter by focusing his energy.
• 

  (#9) Invisibility Cloaks

  THE SUPERHERO: The Invisible Woman (or the Predator, from the movies or hey, even Harry Potter)

  THE SUPERPOWER: Invisibility

  THE REAL-LIFE TECHNOLOGY:
  Scientists in Tokyo University, Japan, have invented a coat which makes those wearing it appear "invisible." The coat is made with a special type of "retro-reflective material" that acts as a photographic screen. A camera exists behind the person who is wearing the coat, and that camera reflects onto the coat so that the wearer appears transparent.

  Check out the video to see it in action.

  Before it's "turned on," it looks like a normal grey windbreaker. The practical application of this? Well, other than being mindblowingly, face-meltingly awesome, it is actually to help surgeons see patient's bodies all the way through, so that they can analyze every single part, never missing a tumor, or what they can't see behind organs normally.

  This can also be used by pilots to make the floors of their planes appear transparent to help them land...which if they did that to the entire plane, it would be Wonder Woman technology.

  Source

  More recently, US and UK scientists have developed a technology that bring us one step closer to something that is less like the moderate invisibility invented by the Japanese and more like TRUE invisibility, but don't get your Hollow-Manesque fantasies rockin' just yet, this wouldn't hit the market for YEARS.

  Here's the report:

  "Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Imperial College London used their cloak, made using photonic crystals with a structure resembling piles of wood, to conceal a small bump on a gold surface, they wrote in Science.

  "'It's kind of like hiding a small object underneath a carpet--except this time the carpet also disappears,' they said.

  "'We put an object under a microscopic structure, a little like a reflective carpet,' said Nicholas Stenger, one of the researchers who worked on the project.

  "'When we looked at it through a lens and did spectroscopy, no matter what angle we looked at the object from, we saw nothing. The bump became invisible,' said Stenger.

  "The 'cloak' they used to make the microscopic bump disappear was composed of special lenses that work by bending light waves to suppress light as it scattered from the bump, the study says.

  "The invisibility cloak was minute, measuring 100 microns by 30 microns -- one micron being one-thousandth of a millimeter -- and the bump it hid was 10 times smaller, said Stenger.

  "The researchers are working now to recreate the disappearing bump but on a larger scale, but Stenger said Harry Potter's invisibility cloak would not be hanging in would-be wizards' wardrobes in the near future.

  "'Theoretically, it would be possible to do this on a large scale but technically, it's totally impossible with the knowledge we have now,' he said."

  (via Discovery News)
• 

  (#1) Military Develops Iron Man Exoskeleton

  THE SUPERHERO: Iron Man

  THE SUPERPOWER: Iron Man's Mark IV/V suit of armor. It can fly, shoot repulsor blasts, comes with awesome helmet displays, communications gear, and is almost impenetrable.

  THE TECHNOLOGY:
  This awesome exoskeleton, coined "Iron Man" by its developers, serves the purpose of increasing mobility and strength by basically using basic robotics to enhance/multiply whatever movement the soldier is making. This means that if you give a punch that would lightly bruise someone, the suit would make it so that the same punch would go through thick wood planks (as seen in this video), or someone's face (as not seen in this video).

  This includes the ability to lift up rockets and rocket launchers as if they're shotguns, which means that we would be that much closer to developing real Mechs (that was the sound of 5,000 nerds – including myself – squealing).

  Seeing the soldier in this video do pushups and lift things shows how this is about as mobile as Iron Man's cave-built suit, which (for real life) is actually pretty damn awesome.

  Lifting extremely heavy munitions, food and other military supplies will be the primary function of this suit...at least for now.

  The most interesting part about this whole thing is that it basically makes even the weakest soldier the strongest one on the field, due to the lack of effort needed to use the suit, as it is mainly a strength enhancement suit.

  Mark my words, in 2030, Exoskeleton Baseball WILL be a sport.

  Here's another, little more crazy version of this, showing that some people just don't get government grants for their research for a REASON: Link

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