If superpowers were real, which would you choose? - Joy Lin

What if I could fly?

What if I could live forever?

What if I could be invisible?

What if I could lift a tank?

For ages, people have craved for answers

to these questions,

and what unbelievably gratifying way

that we have used to express our fantasies

is through the invention of superheroes

and their superpowers.

These days a summer doesn't go by

without a comic book hero transforming

into a giant to defend a girl next door

or fly across a screen to protect the human race

from unspeakable evil.

While an audience's hearts pump with excitement,

some people have found another path

to make their dreams last

beyond the movie-going experience --

through science!

When the first comic book appeared in 1933,

flying was a luxury.

Nowadays, flying is the safest way to travel.

The world's life expectancy has increased

by 15 years since 1960

due to biology and chemistry advancements.

There's been tremendous progress

in stealth technology,

trying to make real-life invisible cloaks.

The fastest speed ever clocked

by a human being on land

is 760 miles per hour in a jet-propelled car.

And athletes routinely dead-lift over 1,000 pounds

in Strongman Competitions.

We're practically breeding real life superheroes!

From bicycles to jet packs,

from looking up at the stars

to entering outer space in the shuttle,

our capacity to acquire knowledge and imagination

to achieve impossible goals

appears to be limitless.

Exciting developments in the worlds

of both humans and superheroes

will always influence each other.

For as you will see by clicking on any superpower

presented in this series,

the rules of superpowers

and the laws of science

don't always agree.