Superpowers

Engineers today are using their creativity to build a variety of superhero-like technologies that enhance our human capabilities, including exosuits, invisibility cloaks, and wall-scaling gloves. What drives these researchers? Were they all comic-book reading dreamers? Or is a need to imagine bigger and better human capabilities just a natural part of who we are? In this episode of Here's an Idea, we talk with researchers whose technologies are giving people the capabilities of their favorite superheroes, from Spider-Man to Iron-Man. With some help from comic book writer Vita Ayala, we examine the motivations behind their projects, and what these impulses might say about our own desire to be super. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.