THE REAL X-MEN
Genetic mutations do produce people capable of performing incredible feats
In 1963, when comic book legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first created the X-Men, they could have had no idea what they had spawned.
Fast-forward four decades, and six X-Men films have grossed more than $2 billion worldwide. This week the seventh in the franchise, X-Men: Days of Future Past, will be released. It is expected to bring in $125 million on its opening weekend alone.
In the Marvel universe, mutation allows the X-Men to create ice formations, generate flames or emit “concussion beams.” In the real world, a surprising number of people have acquired abilities — by way of genetic mutation — that could comfortably be classed as superhuman. Perhaps it is only a partial exaggeration to suggest these are the real-life X-Men.
THE LITTLE HULK
In the late 1990s, Dana and Neil Hoekstra from Michigan adopted a baby boy called Liam, who had been born five weeks prematurely. As Liam grew older, he was able to eat constantly without gaining weight. By the time he was five months old, not only was he able to walk, but he could support his entire body weight on his arms.
He did not have the protruding belly common to toddlers. Instead, he had well-defined abdominal muscles. Before long, he was lifting huge weights, climbing ropes without difficulty and spending evenings at the gym in order to burn off his excess energy.
Liam was soon diagnosed with a rare condition known as myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy, characterized by the absence of proteins that regulate muscle development.
Thankfully, there are no detrimental effects associated with muscle hypertrophy. This leaves nine-year-old Liam free to — as his Facebook page points out — “have fun being a kid.”
THE ICEMAN
One of the original characters in the X-Men was Robert “Bobby” Drake, otherwise known as Iceman. His superpower is cryokinesis, which allows him to turn things around him — or even himself — to ice.
In the real world, the Iceman lives. Wim Hof may not be able to turn everyday objects to ice, but he holds 20 world records related to withstanding the cold, including the longest time in a bath of ice (one hour, 13 minutes and 48 seconds). Among Hof’s achievements are running a marathon above the polar circle in Finland, wearing only shorts. In 2012, a U.S. television program called Fact or Faked tested Hof’s abilities. He passed with flying colours. Over a period of 20 minutes in an ice bath, his temperature and heart rate remained completely normal.
THE MODERN- DAY SAMURAI
Science is baffled by Isao Machii, a 40-year-old Japanese practitioner of Iaido, the art of the samurai sword. Having trained in swordsmanship since the age of five, he is the holder of several Guinness World Records, including “most sword cuts to straw mats in three minutes,” “fastest 1,000 martial arts sword cuts,” and “fastest tennis ball cut by a sword.” To win the last title, Machii cut through a tennis ball that was travelling at 708 kilometres per hour.
Most impressive of all, however, is a stunt he performed in Los Angeles in 2011. An airgun fired a 5 mm plastic pellet at Machii, at a speed of 320 km/ h. At this speed, it is impossible for the human eye to track an object of this size and impossible for the human reflexes to respond. Yet amazingly, he was able to draw his sword and slice it in two while it was in mid-air.
A psychologist, Dr. Ramani Durvasula, observed the experiment. “He was engaging in anticipatory processing, sort of like SpiderMan,” she says. “His form of mindfulness gave him a unique form of anticipatory awareness, which he could bring to a practised task such as slicing the pellet in half.”
MARATHON MAN
Dean Karnazes’s muscles have extraordinary properties. When the 52-year-old exercises, he never reaches a “lactate threshold” — the experience of intense fatigue as the muscles seize up — because his body clears the lactic acid with ultra efficiency. This means that he can remain hydrated and functional for remarkably long periods when engaging in feats of endurance.
Lactate is a byproduct of glucose, which can be converted back into energy. But once the “lactate threshold” occurs, a saturation of lactate is created and acid builds up in the muscles. At this point, most people are forced to stop exercising. Not so for Karnazes.
His 22-year career includes running 560 kilometres in 80 hours and 44 minutes, without sleep; completing a 220-km ultra-marathon in Death Valley, California — the lowest and driest region in North America — in temperatures of 49 C; and, in 2006, running a marathon in each of the 50 U.S. states on 50 consecutive days. Some believe that so long as he is properly fed and hydrated, Karnazes could run continuously at a speed of 15 km/ h until he “dies of old age.”
His remarkable abilities even earned him a place on Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people.
Strangely, Karnazes did not embark on his journey until 1992. “I wasn’t even aware of my ‘gift’ until a TV show did a scientific study on me,” he says. “My belief is that there are people like me walking around all over the place; they just don’t know they have such powers.”
THE HUMAN FISH
The Bajau Laut people, from Southeast Asia, are nomads who spend all their lives in the ocean. They live in “lepa lepa” houseboats or in stilt villages built on top of coral reefs almost a 1.5 km out to sea. Known as “sea gypsies,” the Bajau Laut spend 60 per cent of their time submerged in the water, which is equivalent to a sea otter. They are so deeply acclimatized to an aquatic life that when they occasionally spend the night on terra firma, they complain of feelings of “land sickness.”
The Bajau Laut are known for their free-diving fishermen. One particular member, a man called Solvin, is an expert. On a single breath, he is able to remain submerged for five minutes, descending more than 20 metres to the ocean floor to hunt fish.
Research cited in BBC One’s Human Planet series has shown that when diving, Solvin’s heartbeat slows to 30 beats per minute. His lungs can cope with the air inside them being compressed to a third of its usual volume, and even without weights he is negatively buoyant enough to stride across the ocean floor as if he were hunting on land.
THE MAN WITH NO FEAR
Eskil Ronningsbakken is blessed with an extraordinary sense of balance, which he demonstrates at lethal heights. The Norwegian has walked a tightrope between two hot air balloons, balanced on a bicycle on a wire one kilometre above a fiord, and done a handstand on a pile of chairs balanced on a rock wedged between two rocks over a one-kilometre drop.
Scientists have established that Ronningsbakken does not feel fear in the normal way. “When I’m concentrating, I do not produce excess adrenalin and my heartbeat remains the same,” he says. “It is only after the act that the adrenalin becomes activated and I feel a rush.” Astonishingly, readings of Ronningsbakken’s heart rate were the same whether he was on solid ground or balancing upside-down on the edge of a 30-metre building.