The Avengers' Age of Ultron: The Science Behind the Super Hero

Everyone knows about the Avengers, the super powered hero team that saves the world time and again. There's the Hulk, Iron Man, Black Widow, Thor, Captain America and Hawkeye. But what gives these heroes their powers? And how realistic are they?

Let's start off with Iron Man. A bit like the playboy version of Batman, Iron Man has cash to spare. It's therefore not surprising that he cruises around in a high-tech, robotic suit.

This suit, though, isn't all that farfetched. Already, scientists have created robotic limbs that can respond to a person's thoughts alone. And the Kuratas robot can be piloted by a person, though in comparison to Tony Stark's armor, it's pretty bulky.

Realistically, creating Tony Stark's suit, when it comes down to it, would be pretty difficult--and that's mostly due to weight. While Iron Man can soar through the air, he can also use missiles and other ballistics that are incorporated into the suit. With Stark's weight, the added weapons and the extra armor, it'd be extremely difficult for him to remain airborne.

"Stark's suit is probably made of a nickel titanium alloy called nitinol. It's strong but light and can be reformed after taking damage," said Raychelle Burks of Reactions in a YouTube video. "There may also be some graphite reinforced with carbon fiber, which can take a lot of heat-useful if Iron Man doesn't want to singe his feet using those rocket boots."

Tony Stark may not be able to have his suit (at least not yet), but what about Captain American, Black Widow and the Hulk? All three are the products of scientific experiments dealing with genetic manipulation.

To a degree, their modifications are possible. After all, steroids can increase performance in the human body, and hormones (such as those produced when the Hulk gets angry) can produce changes that can increase a person's physical performance. The healing abilities seen in Black Widow and Captain America could also be attributed to a high white blood cell count.

With that said, the changes that are seen in the Hulk are on the far side of extreme. With the amount of growing and shrinking the Hulk undergoes, it's unlikely that his body would be able to withstand such a large amount of stress consistently.

While the Avengers make for an amazing cast of characters, their abilities are farfetched. That said, there's a grain of truth in each. We may not see a robotic suit today but in the future, it could be a possibility.

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