Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lammin. This is the Monster Fact,
Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
Speaker 2: focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.
Speaker 2: I've been plowing through old episodes of The X Men,
Speaker 2: the animated series from the nineties with my son in
Speaker 2: anticipation of eventually diving into the X Men ninety seven series.
Speaker 2: This show is a lot of fun, packs a lot
Speaker 2: of nostalgia for me, and leads to some interesting conversations
Speaker 2: with my son about the various themes. Some of our
Speaker 2: favorite characters include Rogue and Wolverine, but Colossus is always
Speaker 2: a treat as well. If you're not familiar with this
Speaker 2: particular mutant, we're talking about Russian X Men Peter Resputant,
Speaker 2: an already intimidatingly muscular man and who is able at
Speaker 2: will to assume an impenetrable steel form. Sometimes, as in
Speaker 2: his Marvel dot Com profile, Colossus's transformation is said to
Speaker 2: convert his entire body into an organic steel like substance.
Speaker 2: Other times, the transformation is interpreted as something that occurs
Speaker 2: only at the dermal level, so only at the skin level.
Speaker 2: Either way, the transformation generally looks as if a segmented
Speaker 2: stainless steel coating flows over his entire body. We're going
Speaker 2: to approach it here as a dermal transformation because the
Speaker 2: idea of a full body transformation leaves us less room
Speaker 2: to wonder over the scientific details of the feet. But
Speaker 2: just the idea alone has always been a captivating one
Speaker 2: because here is Peter Resputen, a powerful but peaceful man
Speaker 2: who would far rather pursue art than conflict, but who
Speaker 2: for the greater good can literally grow the thickest, most
Speaker 2: impenetrable skin imaginable to throw down against adversity. For Colossus,
Speaker 2: this might mean the grasping tentacles v Omega Red, always
Speaker 2: a favorite of mine, or the machinations of the Shadow King.
Speaker 2: Once the threat is dealt with, Peter reverts to his
Speaker 2: normal form and continues on in his peaceful, creative pursuits.
Speaker 2: Lynn Ween and Dave Cockrum created Colossus back in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy five, and he remains a popular character to this day.
Speaker 2: So how might we think about Colossus from a scientific
Speaker 2: and biological standpoint? Turning once more to marvel anatomy by
Speaker 2: Mark Sumerac and Daniel Wallace. The authors here discuss his
Speaker 2: ability in terms of a transmutation of his dermal layers
Speaker 2: or skin into an organic steel, with his underlying body
Speaker 2: retaining its flesh and blood form. Their explanation details a
Speaker 2: process by which each individual's skin cell draws on metallic
Speaker 2: extra dimensional mass to become an activated organic steel cell. So,
Speaker 2: in other words, each cell of Colossus's dermal layer coats
Speaker 2: itself in biological metallic material, and this translates into the
Speaker 2: transformation of the entire epidermis, but at the cellular level. Thus,
Speaker 2: his mobility is not compromised, and his already incredible baseline
Speaker 2: strength no doubt helps out as well. Now, by this explanation,
Speaker 2: we may not be dealing exactly with something like steel
Speaker 2: shutters from nowhere flowing over his entire body, but that
Speaker 2: metallic cellular coating has to come from somewhere if we're
Speaker 2: to adhere to the law of conservation of mass. And
Speaker 2: the answer they provide is that the ability draws on
Speaker 2: another spatial dimension. That's where the metal comes from. And okay,
Speaker 2: that works for me. Now. I also ran across an
Speaker 2: excellent twenty eighteen paper in the journal Advances in Physiology
Speaker 2: Education titled The Physiology of Impenetrable Skin and Colossus of
Speaker 2: the x Men by Barry W. Fitzgerald. His whole point
Speaker 2: is that Colossus is a great example of how a
Speaker 2: fictional character can promote multidisciplinary scientific discussion in a classroom. Now,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to summarize everything Fitzgerald has to say,
Speaker 2: but he makes some great points about Colossus and thermoregulation. Basically,
Speaker 2: we have to think about what human skin does for
Speaker 2: the body and how that might be impacted by a
Speaker 2: shift into a steel form. One key area of concern
Speaker 2: is thermoregulation of body temperature, which the skin plays a
Speaker 2: role in via such responses as vasodilation, vaso constriction, and
Speaker 2: of course sweating. Can Colossus's steel skin do any of
Speaker 2: this well? The author here contends that his body's ability
Speaker 2: to thermo regulate would be severely impacted via this steel
Speaker 2: or organic steel or otherwise metal coating, and specifically, during
Speaker 2: a heated battle, he would simply overheat. He wouldn't be
Speaker 2: much good battling the Juggernaut if he passes out from
Speaker 2: overheating just a few minutes into the struggle. Fitzgerald isn't
Speaker 2: here to yuck everyone's young, though with science he presents
Speaker 2: a possible path forward. Perhaps he says Colossus's organic steel
Speaker 2: skin is actually graphene due to its protective capability and
Speaker 2: its biocompatibility. It's carbon after all, like we are, and
Speaker 2: it's super thin, consisting of a single layer of atoms
Speaker 2: arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure. This biographine honeycomb lattice
Speaker 2: layer hypothesis would therefore solve a number of the key
Speaker 2: problems with Peter's mutant power, from thermoregulation to mass conservation.
Speaker 2: The layer would swiftly form via protein folding and self assembly,
Speaker 2: and bam, Colossus is ready for action. I highly recommend
Speaker 2: checking out Fitzgerald's paper here of the topic in or
Speaker 2: out of the classroom, because hey, presumably Colossus is headed
Speaker 2: back into theaters and back into action this summer in
Speaker 2: the next Deadpool movie, so it's a perfect time to
Speaker 2: embrace both science and mutant powers. Tune in for additional
Speaker 2: episodes of The Monster Fact each week. As always, you
Speaker 2: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your
Speaker 2: Mind dot com.
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