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We are not here to discuss or complain about the real world.
Questions about who would prevail in a conflict/competition (not just combat) fit better on r/whowouldwin. Questions about very open-ended hypotheticals fit better on r/whatiffiction.
You’re not getting superpowers from any kind of radiation. An intense dose of ionising radiation will just damage your cells and dna and lead to a horribly painful death. Lower level exposure raises your chances of cancer.
The FF was exposed to cosmic radiation. While some types of cosmic rays might involve gamma radiation, the type they were exposed to was something entirely different.
Gamma rays are a real thing, but obviously they’re not going to affect a real person like they would a superhero. Their effect on the body is going to be similar to most forms of ionizing radiation (cancer risk in lower doses, nausea, burns, or even just instant death at really high doses). They’re also really really good at slipping between atoms, meaning you need extremely dense materials to shield yourself from them.
First, they don’t. That’s the Hulk that gets his power from gamma. They get their powers from cosmic rays or radiation found in outer space.
And no, no form of radiation has been found to be beneficial to humans; the radiation attacks our DNA and breaks it down. So gamma radiation would kill you, not give you super powers.
Remember, a lot of these characters were created during what some called the nuclear age of our society, where we were still riding the emotional high of winning WWII with nuclear bombs. So writers used nuclear energy as a source of power for many heroes despite the fact that it’s absurd in the real world.
The Fantastic Four were exposed to radiation and gained powers; Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider and got powers; Banner was caught in a nuclear blast and became the Hulk, and then shared his radioactive blood with his cousin to become She-Hulk; it may have been a canister of nuclear waste that took Matt Murdock’s sight and gave us Daredevil.
And then there’s the X-Men, based on the idea of *genetic mutations that may have been encouraged by radiation*,* similar to how we shoot radiation at plants to break their DNA … which is why the majority*** of the mutants were born after WWII.
All types of radiation have the ability to damage your DNA. Because of the energy they transmit, they can ionise molecules (essentially give them a charge). If this happens to any particles within your DNA, this can cause damage, including mutations. Unlike what you might see in movies, you won’t melt into a pile of black goop, but the most likely effect is that the cells affected will die. From what I know, this is because either the cell’s structure is compromised, or the radiation causes the cell to commit suicide (it’s a process that’s called apoptosis, that is used to get rid of damaged cells). In other cases, the cell survives, but as the DNA is affected, it will function differently. This might lead to something like cancer, where the cell divides uncontrollably. From what I know, other effects (like non-functioning enzymes being produced), would lead to the cell dying, so back to the first scenario.
If the cell dies, then you might experience a range of symptoms, such as radiation burns, vomiting, nausea, and potentially organ failure. All of this is dependent on which part of the body is irradiated, and how high the radiation dose is.
Out of the three main types of radiation emitted by unstable nuclei (alpha, beta and gamma), gamma radiation is the most highly penetrating, but also the least ionising. This means that it can travel over a kilometre in air (for comparison, alpha radiation only travels less than 5cm). Therefore, if the source of gamma radiation is in your body, while you probably experience some minor effects, your cells will most likely not be affected heavily.
This is actually used in medical monitoring – you can be fed a source of gamma radiation, and the gamma rays will pass through your body with minor, if any, effects, letting doctors monitor where in your digestive tract it is, and therefore how well it is functioning. However, this is not used with every source of gamma radiation – the doctors have to be very careful about what they use, as there is always a risk, and they want to minimise this.
If the source is outside your body, then the rays are able to penetrate all of your cells, unlike with alpha or beta radiation. This means that while gamma radiation is the least likely to damage an individual cell, it has access to all of your cells, and therefore is the most likely to cause serious symptoms. You’re not going to hulk out, you’re going to die. For context, one of the radioactive isotopes released in Chernobyl was Caesium-137, which mainly released gamma rays. The effects of this on the people affected by the disaster was pretty much the worst-case scenario, especially considering the long range of gamma radiation, unlike the other radiation types.
TLDR: Depending on which parts of the body is exposed, the source and time length of radiation, and a couple of other factors that I probably haven’t taken into account, the effects will range from mild nausea to death. There is a 0% chance of becoming Hulk. Don’t expose yourself to gamma radiation without proper safety procedures, and only if necessary.
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Gamma radiation is pretty lethal to humans.
Sure, they can give you cancer!
You’re not getting superpowers from any kind of radiation. An intense dose of ionising radiation will just damage your cells and dna and lead to a horribly painful death. Lower level exposure raises your chances of cancer.
They got their powers from Cosmic Rays, the Hulk was created due to gamma radiation.
In real life Gamma radiation will give you Radiation poisoning, cancer, or a higher likelihood of developing cancer depending on the dosage.
They strip the electrons off atoms, damaging DNA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_radiation_syndrome
Not especially pleasant.
The FF was exposed to cosmic radiation. While some types of cosmic rays might involve gamma radiation, the type they were exposed to was something entirely different.
Gamma rays are a real thing, but obviously they’re not going to affect a real person like they would a superhero. Their effect on the body is going to be similar to most forms of ionizing radiation (cancer risk in lower doses, nausea, burns, or even just instant death at really high doses). They’re also really really good at slipping between atoms, meaning you need extremely dense materials to shield yourself from them.
First, they don’t. That’s the Hulk that gets his power from gamma. They get their powers from cosmic rays or radiation found in outer space.
And no, no form of radiation has been found to be beneficial to humans; the radiation attacks our DNA and breaks it down. So gamma radiation would kill you, not give you super powers.
Remember, a lot of these characters were created during what some called the nuclear age of our society, where we were still riding the emotional high of winning WWII with nuclear bombs. So writers used nuclear energy as a source of power for many heroes despite the fact that it’s absurd in the real world.
The Fantastic Four were exposed to radiation and gained powers; Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider and got powers; Banner was caught in a nuclear blast and became the Hulk, and then shared his radioactive blood with his cousin to become She-Hulk; it may have been a canister of nuclear waste that took Matt Murdock’s sight and gave us Daredevil.
And then there’s the X-Men, based on the idea of *genetic mutations that may have been encouraged by radiation*,* similar to how we shoot radiation at plants to break their DNA … which is why the majority*** of the mutants were born after WWII.
Have you seen the HBO series Chernobyl? I’ll spoil it a bit and say none of them got super powers.
All types of radiation have the ability to damage your DNA. Because of the energy they transmit, they can ionise molecules (essentially give them a charge). If this happens to any particles within your DNA, this can cause damage, including mutations. Unlike what you might see in movies, you won’t melt into a pile of black goop, but the most likely effect is that the cells affected will die. From what I know, this is because either the cell’s structure is compromised, or the radiation causes the cell to commit suicide (it’s a process that’s called apoptosis, that is used to get rid of damaged cells). In other cases, the cell survives, but as the DNA is affected, it will function differently. This might lead to something like cancer, where the cell divides uncontrollably. From what I know, other effects (like non-functioning enzymes being produced), would lead to the cell dying, so back to the first scenario.
If the cell dies, then you might experience a range of symptoms, such as radiation burns, vomiting, nausea, and potentially organ failure. All of this is dependent on which part of the body is irradiated, and how high the radiation dose is.
Out of the three main types of radiation emitted by unstable nuclei (alpha, beta and gamma), gamma radiation is the most highly penetrating, but also the least ionising. This means that it can travel over a kilometre in air (for comparison, alpha radiation only travels less than 5cm). Therefore, if the source of gamma radiation is in your body, while you probably experience some minor effects, your cells will most likely not be affected heavily.
This is actually used in medical monitoring – you can be fed a source of gamma radiation, and the gamma rays will pass through your body with minor, if any, effects, letting doctors monitor where in your digestive tract it is, and therefore how well it is functioning. However, this is not used with every source of gamma radiation – the doctors have to be very careful about what they use, as there is always a risk, and they want to minimise this.
If the source is outside your body, then the rays are able to penetrate all of your cells, unlike with alpha or beta radiation. This means that while gamma radiation is the least likely to damage an individual cell, it has access to all of your cells, and therefore is the most likely to cause serious symptoms. You’re not going to hulk out, you’re going to die. For context, one of the radioactive isotopes released in Chernobyl was Caesium-137, which mainly released gamma rays. The effects of this on the people affected by the disaster was pretty much the worst-case scenario, especially considering the long range of gamma radiation, unlike the other radiation types.
TLDR: Depending on which parts of the body is exposed, the source and time length of radiation, and a couple of other factors that I probably haven’t taken into account, the effects will range from mild nausea to death. There is a 0% chance of becoming Hulk. Don’t expose yourself to gamma radiation without proper safety procedures, and only if necessary.
Cancer. They give you cancer.