Episode 9: Superpowers and How You Get Them

SUBJECTIVE

In this episode, we talk about where the X-men get their powers. Can your DNA give you super speed AND let you control the weather AND shoot lasers out of your eyes AND do whatever it is that Rogue does? Maybe! It's all about the gene activation. It turns out, the power is in you!

OBJECTIVE

Resources, Citations, and Mentions:

• The X-men that show up in the Deadpool movies (2016 and 2018) are Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
• Veterans Used In Secret Experiments Sue Military For Answers by Caitlin Dickerson, NPR, Sep 2015
• Short-Term Superhuman: If We Create Augmented Soldiers, Can We Turn Them Back? by Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, Sep 2018
• Wikipedia - Weapon Plus
• Pre-serum Chris Evans is a combination of CGI and Leander Deeny.
• Psychic Spies, Acid Guinea Pigs, New Age Soldiers: the True Men Who Stare at Goats by David Hambling, WIRED, Nov 2009
• DARPA - Blood Pharming, Nov 2013
• The Pentagon’s Push to Program Soldiers’ Brains by Michael Joseph Gross, The Atlantic, Nov 2018
• DARPA's Mind-Controlled Arm Will Make You Wish You Were a Cyborg by Maddie Stone, Gizmodo, May 2016
• DARPA's MBA program: Understanding Warfighter Performance from the Inside Out, Jan 2019
• GeckSkin from UMassAmherst
• About Vantablack from Surrey NanoSystems

ASSESSMENT

• Deepa: the genomics of X-men gets a 6 out of 10 DNA rocks
• Jen: the X-gene gets a 7.5 out of 10 radioactive spider bites

PLAN

Special thanks to Butterscotch Shenanigans for letting us use their podcast equipment! Check out their game dev comedy podcast Coffee with Butterscotch!

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Theme Music and SFX: Kevin MacLeod (CC BY) - RetroFuture Clean, Danse Macabre-Big Hit 2