Cosmic radiation gave the Fantastic Four superpowers. Here's what would happen in real life.
These are high energy particles that stream through the universe at nearly the speed of light, according to Dimitra Atri of the Mars Research Group at New York University Abu Dhabi's Center for Astrophysics and Space Science. They originate from events like supernova explosions and solar flares and travel through space, constantly bombarding Earth in all directions and entering its atmosphere.
(How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt's Great Pyramid.)
In Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps, now playing only in theaters, the Fantastic 4 receive their powers after being exposed to cosmic radiation that alters their DNA on a fundamental level. While these high-speed particles unfortunately won't give you superpowers in real life, they can permeate the human body.
At high doses, cosmic rays can tear through DNA molecules and damage biological tissue. Prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation can increase the risk of cancer, cataracts, and reproductive problems. It can also hinder neurogenesis, the process of generating new cells in the brain.
But just how much the human body is exposed to this type of radiation and how it'll influence our health will vary depending on altitude and what measures are taken to protect us from them. Here's what you should know. How cosmic radiation affects you if you stay on Earth
Here on Earth, we have a natural defense system against cosmic radiation that safeguards life on the planet: Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field. The atmosphere absorbs most of the energy from cosmic radiation, letting only a small fraction reach the Earth's surface. Our planet's magnetic field, produced by electric currents in the Earth's core, shields the planet from most harmful space radiation. Cosmic rays that reach the Earth's surface have been recorded by the vapor trails they leave in bubble chambers, such as the above recording from Bubble Chamber-924 in July 1960. Photograph by Science Source/Science Photo Library When the Apollo crews returned from the moon, small dents were found in their helmets caused by impacts from cosmic rays. The above is a magnified view of a silicone test helmet replica. Photograph by NYPL/Science Source/Science Photo Library
On average, people on Earth's surface are exposed to around three millisieverts of radiation per year. (Sieverts, frequently expressed in millisieverts, are a unit used to measure the dose of radiation that affects the human body.) However, elevation matters. 'As you move up, the thickness of the atmosphere lessens and you're exposed to more radiation,' Atri says.
The higher a person is in altitude, the less atmospheric protection they will receive from cosmic particles. People in high-altitude locations, such as Denver—known as "The Mile High City"—experience slightly elevated cosmic radiation levels than those who are at sea level in places like Miami. How cosmic radiation affects you when you fly
When air travel takes us to higher altitudes, it also brings us closer to the highly energetic particles emanating from outer space.
While a plane passenger is exposed to elevated levels of cosmic radiation, the radiation they receive in one flight is insignificant. For example, a coast-to-coast round-trip flight is about equal to the radiation dose of a single chest X-ray.
Pilots, flight attendants, and frequent flyers, however, face increased exposure to cosmic radiation because of how often they're in the sky.
One Harvard University study concluded that radiation exposure contributed to occupational health issues within flight crews and job-related cancer risks. Other research found that aircrew typically receive more radiation exposure than workers at nuclear facilities.
'Still, it is not enough to cause that much damage because you are still within the magnetic field of the Earth, and there is still an atmosphere,' Atri adds. How cosmic radiation affects you when you leave the planet
After venturing beyond Earth's protective atmosphere, spacefaring humans face significant radiation exposure levels. The human body in space would be constantly pelted with high-energy particles.
(What toll does spaceflight take on astronauts? Here's what we know.)
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits the Earth at an altitude of 400 kilometers, or 260 miles, are exposed to much higher levels of radiation than those on Earth's surface. In just one week aboard the ISS, astronauts are exposed to the same cosmic radiation the average human would receive at sea level on Earth in a year.
Astronauts traveling to farther reaches of the cosmos—on missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond—would be exposed to even more cosmic rays during transit and arrival to their destination. Because of this, many space agencies have proposed career-long radiation dose limits on how much radiation spacefaring astronauts can be exposed to.
An instrument aboard the Curiosity Mars rover during its 253-day trek to Mars revealed that the radiation dose received by an astronaut on a trip there and back alone would be about 0.66 sieverts—the equivalent of 660 chest X-rays. And while Earth's atmosphere protects it from most of the cosmos' barrage of radiation, Mars' slight atmosphere—about 100 times thinner than Earth's—allows a lot of that radiation in.
Using the Curiosity rover's measurements, researchers estimate a 500-day mission on the Red Planet's surface would bring the total exposure to around one sieverts; that's about 10 times the radiation dose an astronaut receives during a six-month mission on the ISS.
Researchers have proposed a number of spacecraft designs with shields made of water, hydrogen-rich materials, or planetary material that can offer a potentially safer trip through the cosmos by absorbing radiation. Phantom Torsos, such as the one seen above, are anatomical models built with hundreds of radiation monitoring devices that allow researchers to calculate the amount of radiation that penetrates internal organs during space travel. While space suits offer some protection from cosmic rays, timing extravehicular activities during periods of low solar activity is the best means of protection.
There is also ongoing research surrounding shelter designs that, once astronauts have reached their destination, can be buried or shielded to reduce radiation exposure. 'When you're on the surface, you can use Mars' soil to build habitats,' Atri says. 'You can build somethingunderground that gives you natural shielding. That should be sufficient to basically get rid of the most extreme component of damaging radiation.'
Cosmic radiation is a major challenge for interplanetary travel, prompting medical experts to also consider medications that can lessen its impact on the human body. 'It's a very interdisciplinary field,' Atri says. 'We have medical professionals, physicists, engineers, psychologists—everyone has to be on board.'
Despite our growing knowledge of these mysterious charged particles, Atri says we need more data to fully understand how to protect humans from exposure if we want to explore the far reaches of the cosmos.
Unless you have any space travel planned in the near future, you can rest assured you won't be feeling many negative health effects—or experiencing superpowers—from cosmic radiation. Marvel Studios' "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" is now playing only in theaters.
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Time Magazine
2 days ago
- Time Magazine
The Trippy Experience of Watching the Fantastic Four Birth Scene While Pregnant
Warning: This post contains light spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. I knew, based on the title The Fantastic Four: First Steps, that Marvel's latest superhero movie would introduce a pregnant superhero, Sue Storm, and deal with the birth of her super-baby, Franklin Richards. I did not expect, when I stepped into a screening eight months pregnant myself, an exegesis on the anxieties of pregnancy and early parenthood. I certainly did not anticipate (spoiler alert) a zero-gravity birth scene during a high-speed space chase that played like an extreme version of my nightmare of giving birth in a taxi en route to the hospital. And yet the film, from its opening scene, is preoccupied with all the worries that come with parenthood. In the first minutes, Sue (Vanessa Kirby) takes a pregnancy test and shows it to her husband, Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal). He is shocked. They had tried for years without success. His shock turns to elation, and then the wheels start spinning. Sue and Reed, along with Sue's brother Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and their pal Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), were exposed to cosmic radiation in space that altered their DNA and gave them superpowers. But what if their altered cells impact the baby in some way? Will he be OK? Sue calms Reed's nerves, but the brilliant scientist's tendency to spin out will be familiar to anyone who has struggled to conceive, dealt with a disquieting diagnosis for their child while they were still in utero, or, as I have, had a miscarriage. I'm all too familiar with the quick succession of hope and panic when a positive sign pops up on a pregnancy test, a joy that after a loss cannot be trusted. Reed obsessively runs tests on Sue and the fetus, building his own machine to do so. Whether these efforts soothe his anxiety or exacerbate it is unclear, like those smart devices that monitor your baby's breathing overnight—but may cause heart palpitations when they deliver a false read or disconnect from WiFi. Meanwhile, Sue keeps repeating, 'nothing is going to change,' the delusional mantra of the expecting parent. Reed and Sue argue throughout the movie about Reed's catastrophic thinking. Sue accuses him of conjuring up the worst case scenario for every circumstance, including the health and safety of their child. He shoots back that he is preparing for the worst and protecting their family. By contrast, Sue's insistence that everything will be all right is so plainly unrealistic that the audience is waiting for some actual catastrophe to shake her out of her stupor. Again, it's a fight familiar to any couple who has disagreed about how much prenatal testing to do or the best way to prepare for challenges in pregnancy and parenthood. Ultimately, Reed's fears aren't totally misplaced. When the big bad of the movie—a planet-eating giant named Galactus—sets his sights on Earth as his next snack, the Fantastic Four fly to space to try to negotiate. In a Rumpelstiltskin-esque turn in the story, Galactus offers to spare earth if Reed and Sue will give him their baby. Galactus senses some sort of universe-bending power in the little one and wants to take him on as an apprentice. Sue and Reed reject this offer, only for Sue to immediately go into labor. They run back to their ship, with Galactus' minion, the Silver Surfer (a shimmery Julia Turner), in hot pursuit. The birth scene that comes next is not exactly traumatic, but it is not what I would choose to watch shortly before my own labor. Sue begins having contractions on the ship in zero gravity. The Silver Surfer at one point is able to actually get her hand onto Sue Storm's belly (perhaps even into it—I didn't follow the physics of this villain's powers) during labor—an unimaginable bodily violation. Sue screams at her brother, Johnny, to kill the Silver Surfer because she's trying to murder his unborn nephew. Fair enough! Meanwhile, Sue has to use her powers to make the ship invisible between her contractions in order to hide it from the baddies. Johnny tries to shoot the Silver Surfer; Reed pins Sue down to a table so she can use gravity to push; Ben stands at the ready to catch the baby; and their handy robot sidekick Herbie pilots the ship. If I had to stretch this metaphor, and I did while watching the movie because I couldn't help myself, I would say this scene is akin to giving birth in a Waymo while your husband coaches you, your brother fights someone trying to murder your unborn child, and a good friend (but still just a friend) watches your baby emerge from your body, a sight you would prefer to reserve for only people wearing scrubs. Oh, and you have to perform intense pilates maneuvers between contractions, because why not? Points for originality: I don't believe I have ever seen a baby born in a Marvel movie before, let alone one born in space. Honestly, I can think of very few space births off the top of my head besides the body-horror versions in various Alien movies, and this one thankfully ends more happily than the self-imposed C-section to remove an alien from Noomi Rapace's character in Prometheus. I do have some notes. It seems to be a specific male fantasy that women can perform immense physical feats while also in labor, especially without an epidural. I was reminded of an interview I once conducted with the brilliant James Cameron about (among other things) the choice to feature a pregnant Na'vi played by Kate Winslet going into battle in Avatar: The Way of Water, a decision I found at once empowering and unrealistic. Cameron told me—and this has stuck with me for years—'Pregnancy is treated as a condition or affliction as opposed to a natural part of the human life cycle.' He went on to muse that women have been delivering babies in precarious circumstances for centuries. 'They might be giving birth, and 10 seconds later spearing a saber-toothed tiger that happened to attack the camp. They don't have a choice. That's how we evolved,' he said. 'If people don't buy it, they need to do their research.' I gave birth for the first time myself about a year later and was fortunate to experience a relatively smooth labor. I also lost a lot of blood, vomited, and needed medication immediately after they placed my daughter on my chest. I was not prepared to take on a tiger, saber-toothed or otherwise. James Cameron is a man, and all of the credited screenwriters on Fantastic Four: First Steps are men. While I respect their admiration for the strength of a woman bringing forth a new life, and perhaps many of them have personally witnessed childbirth, I suspect had they gone through the experience themselves, their creative license on the multitasking and supreme energy levels of women in labor might be tempered. For that matter, the writer of Rosemary's Baby was a man. So were the writers of Knocked Up and Children of Men and many of the most famous birth scenes you know from film. Once Reed and Sue's baby is born, the drama centers around questions of whether the baby does have superpowers and the fact that, if he does, he's in peril of being kidnapped. You didn't think Galactus was going to give up on raising a fellow planet killer that easily, did you? I didn't personally love that either, but more because The Incredibles did it first—and better—with baby Jack Jack. But children in danger seems to be a new superhero trend: Superman recently featured a scene in which the hero played by David Corenswet must hold an alien baby aloft in a time-bending stream of death. In Thunderbolts* (a.k.a. The New Avengers), David Harbour's Red Guardian saves a little girl only for the villain to disappear her into a dark void seconds later. In all three cases, I knew these children weren't actually going to be (permanently) hurt. But I wondered why I was sitting through the unnecessary agony of watching helpless babes in peril. Perhaps the point is to forge new ground in an increasingly tired genre. The Fantastic Four does actually capture well many of the anxieties of pregnancy and early parenthood, even if the stakes are exaggerated because it is a superhero movie. At a moment when the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in desperate need of new ideas, focusing on family and parenthood in particular feels novel. Matt Shakman, the director of First Steps, produced and directed WandaVision, the only other MCU property that has dealt with the challenges of parenthood in an emotionally significant way. In that Disney+ show, as in this movie, a mother (Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff) goes to extreme lengths to create and protect new life—she forms her twin boys with magic—and come to terms with what she can and cannot control as a parent. (Though much of that emotional work in WandaVision was unfortunately undone by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which transforms Wanda into the least subtle version of the crazed mama-bear trope imaginable.) Attending a movie while pregnant can be hazardous. The editor of this piece had to sit through Hereditary while expecting, an experience that conjured nightmares of a demon fetus, and a friend recently recalled squirming while watching a talking fetus that communicates telepathically with her mother in Dune Part 2 while she had a baby in her own belly. I do admire Shakman's willingness to take on the oft-ignored topic of labor, one that, when it is addressed, is more often the stuff of comedy (Knocked Up) or prestige drama (Children of Men), not popcorn movies that largely cater to a young, male audience. Even so, take heed if you are expecting and in any way squeamish. You may want to stream this particular birth postpartum.
USA Today
3 days ago
- USA Today
'Fantastic Four' post-credit scenes, explained: What did they mean?
The first family of Marvel hit theaters this week with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Led by Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm) and Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm), The Fantastic Four: First Steps is both "certified fresh" with an 88% from critics and "certified hot" with a 92% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. MORE FANTASIC FOUR: Our review of the new MCU movie WARNING: Spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps follow! In the movie, the Fantastic Four have to figure out a way to protect their Earth from the cosmic being Galactus that has to devour planets for sustenance. When Galactus finds out the unborn child of Richards and Storm will be able to absorb his relentless need for consumption, he offers to save Earth in return for baby Franklin. Naturally, that is a deal that the Fantastic Four cannot agree to, so the quartet attempts to solve the problem in another way. There are two post-credit scenes, with the mid-credit scene being the more important for the continued story in the MCU. The first post-credit scene is four years after the events of the movie, with Sue reading to now 4-year-old Franklin. She gets up to find her son a new book, and when she returns, a strange figure in a cloak and holding a metal mask is in the living room with her child. The masked stranger is Dr. Victor Von Doom, a character that will be played by Robert Downey Jr. in the MCU. His home nation of Latveria was hinted at in The Fantastic Four: First Steps with a shot that panned the country's empty seats as Sue addressed the United Nations, but there is no reference directly to Doom until the end. The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place on Earth-828, with the rest of the MCU over on Earth-616. During one of the post-credit scenes in May's Thunderbolts*, the New Avengers intercepted an alert that a strange ship was entering their airspace. It turned out to be none other than the Fantastic Four, likely coming from another dimension. Is the Dr. Doom we see at the end of The Fantastic Four: First Steps Earth-616's Dr. Doom? Did he kidnap Franklin? The answers will have to wait until Avengers: Doomsday comes out in December of 2026. The second post-credit scene is just a fun animated Fantastic Four television jingle. It's cute, but not impactful from a story standpoint.
National Geographic
3 days ago
- National Geographic
Cosmic radiation gave the Fantastic Four superpowers. Here's what would happen in real life.
When we gaze up at the night sky, we often marvel at the twinkling stars, distant planets, and expansive galaxies. Yet, beyond the visible spectrum lies a more mysterious aspect of the cosmos—cosmic radiation. These are high energy particles that stream through the universe at nearly the speed of light, according to Dimitra Atri of the Mars Research Group at New York University Abu Dhabi's Center for Astrophysics and Space Science. They originate from events like supernova explosions and solar flares and travel through space, constantly bombarding Earth in all directions and entering its atmosphere. (How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt's Great Pyramid.) In Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps, now playing only in theaters, the Fantastic 4 receive their powers after being exposed to cosmic radiation that alters their DNA on a fundamental level. While these high-speed particles unfortunately won't give you superpowers in real life, they can permeate the human body. At high doses, cosmic rays can tear through DNA molecules and damage biological tissue. Prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation can increase the risk of cancer, cataracts, and reproductive problems. It can also hinder neurogenesis, the process of generating new cells in the brain. But just how much the human body is exposed to this type of radiation and how it'll influence our health will vary depending on altitude and what measures are taken to protect us from them. Here's what you should know. How cosmic radiation affects you if you stay on Earth Here on Earth, we have a natural defense system against cosmic radiation that safeguards life on the planet: Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field. The atmosphere absorbs most of the energy from cosmic radiation, letting only a small fraction reach the Earth's surface. Our planet's magnetic field, produced by electric currents in the Earth's core, shields the planet from most harmful space radiation. Cosmic rays that reach the Earth's surface have been recorded by the vapor trails they leave in bubble chambers, such as the above recording from Bubble Chamber-924 in July 1960. Photograph by Science Source/Science Photo Library When the Apollo crews returned from the moon, small dents were found in their helmets caused by impacts from cosmic rays. The above is a magnified view of a silicone test helmet replica. Photograph by NYPL/Science Source/Science Photo Library On average, people on Earth's surface are exposed to around three millisieverts of radiation per year. (Sieverts, frequently expressed in millisieverts, are a unit used to measure the dose of radiation that affects the human body.) However, elevation matters. 'As you move up, the thickness of the atmosphere lessens and you're exposed to more radiation,' Atri says. The higher a person is in altitude, the less atmospheric protection they will receive from cosmic particles. People in high-altitude locations, such as Denver—known as "The Mile High City"—experience slightly elevated cosmic radiation levels than those who are at sea level in places like Miami. How cosmic radiation affects you when you fly When air travel takes us to higher altitudes, it also brings us closer to the highly energetic particles emanating from outer space. While a plane passenger is exposed to elevated levels of cosmic radiation, the radiation they receive in one flight is insignificant. For example, a coast-to-coast round-trip flight is about equal to the radiation dose of a single chest X-ray. Pilots, flight attendants, and frequent flyers, however, face increased exposure to cosmic radiation because of how often they're in the sky. One Harvard University study concluded that radiation exposure contributed to occupational health issues within flight crews and job-related cancer risks. Other research found that aircrew typically receive more radiation exposure than workers at nuclear facilities. 'Still, it is not enough to cause that much damage because you are still within the magnetic field of the Earth, and there is still an atmosphere,' Atri adds. How cosmic radiation affects you when you leave the planet After venturing beyond Earth's protective atmosphere, spacefaring humans face significant radiation exposure levels. The human body in space would be constantly pelted with high-energy particles. (What toll does spaceflight take on astronauts? Here's what we know.) Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits the Earth at an altitude of 400 kilometers, or 260 miles, are exposed to much higher levels of radiation than those on Earth's surface. In just one week aboard the ISS, astronauts are exposed to the same cosmic radiation the average human would receive at sea level on Earth in a year. Astronauts traveling to farther reaches of the cosmos—on missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond—would be exposed to even more cosmic rays during transit and arrival to their destination. Because of this, many space agencies have proposed career-long radiation dose limits on how much radiation spacefaring astronauts can be exposed to. An instrument aboard the Curiosity Mars rover during its 253-day trek to Mars revealed that the radiation dose received by an astronaut on a trip there and back alone would be about 0.66 sieverts—the equivalent of 660 chest X-rays. And while Earth's atmosphere protects it from most of the cosmos' barrage of radiation, Mars' slight atmosphere—about 100 times thinner than Earth's—allows a lot of that radiation in. Using the Curiosity rover's measurements, researchers estimate a 500-day mission on the Red Planet's surface would bring the total exposure to around one sieverts; that's about 10 times the radiation dose an astronaut receives during a six-month mission on the ISS. Researchers have proposed a number of spacecraft designs with shields made of water, hydrogen-rich materials, or planetary material that can offer a potentially safer trip through the cosmos by absorbing radiation. Phantom Torsos, such as the one seen above, are anatomical models built with hundreds of radiation monitoring devices that allow researchers to calculate the amount of radiation that penetrates internal organs during space travel. While space suits offer some protection from cosmic rays, timing extravehicular activities during periods of low solar activity is the best means of protection. There is also ongoing research surrounding shelter designs that, once astronauts have reached their destination, can be buried or shielded to reduce radiation exposure. 'When you're on the surface, you can use Mars' soil to build habitats,' Atri says. 'You can build somethingunderground that gives you natural shielding. That should be sufficient to basically get rid of the most extreme component of damaging radiation.' Cosmic radiation is a major challenge for interplanetary travel, prompting medical experts to also consider medications that can lessen its impact on the human body. 'It's a very interdisciplinary field,' Atri says. 'We have medical professionals, physicists, engineers, psychologists—everyone has to be on board.' Despite our growing knowledge of these mysterious charged particles, Atri says we need more data to fully understand how to protect humans from exposure if we want to explore the far reaches of the cosmos. Unless you have any space travel planned in the near future, you can rest assured you won't be feeling many negative health effects—or experiencing superpowers—from cosmic radiation. Marvel Studios' "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" is now playing only in theaters.
