The science of superheroes uncovered by Hollywood professor

‘You’re not a scientist until you get a pipe’ began Kakalios as he pulled one from his jacket pocket and posed for his Book Festival audience. This was, he said, a lesson learned from the comic books of his childhood, which often featured fearless superhero scientists who succeeded in saving the world by employing more brain than brawn. The discovery of girls in high school resulted in Kakalios giving up on comics for several years, but by the time he was at college his interest was reignited.

‘Everything I needed to know about physics I learned from reading comic books’ claimed Kakalios. ‘Superheroes in comics get their science right more than you might think. You just need to suspend your disbelief.’ He illustrated this with examples of The Flash demonstrating Newton’s Third Law of Motion and Superman correctly describing electrical currents.

However the science of comics can’t always be trusted. In an issue of Spider-Man, lightning bolts are deflected with an airborne steel chair. ‘Everyone knows electricity is attracted to metal’ claims Spidey. Kakalios retorted ‘This tactic would work if the chair were grounded. Electricity isn’t attracted to metal if it has nowhere to go!’ And as for accuracy of comic books’ scientific predictions ‘Comic Books were always envisaging what the future might be like. They promised we’d all be travelling to work with jetpacks… what we got was laptops and cell phones’.

Towards the end of the event the professor announced ‘now I’m going to teach you all quantum physics’ and checking his watch added ‘and I’ve got 10 minutes to do it!’ What followed was a witty and enlightening lesson that had a captivated audience in fits of laughter.

Kakalios was launched into the limelight when he wrote a paper on the science of Spider-Man to coincide with the release of Sam Raimi’s 2002 superhero movie. The piece was published on a Friday and by the Monday morning the mild mannered physicist professor was fielding calls from the BBC, The New York Times and CNN. He received hundreds of e-mails from students and teachers delighted with the concept of using superheroes to teach physics and he went on to write two books, The Physics of Superheroes and The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics, each of which explains the principles of physics in a playful yet informative manner. Whilst at the Edinburgh International Book Festival James has appeared in two events, one of which was part of the Baillie Gifford Schools Programme.