Why does kryptonite effect superman

Though kryptonite is a fictional mineral, the way it interferes makes sense. Radioactive materials emit radiation in the form of particles and energy.

This can be anything from whole helium nuclei to gamma rays. If gamma rays were emitted by kryptonite, they would ionize Superman's cells. By knocking electrons and atoms around in his body, this process of ionization would wreak havoc and disrupt normal cell sun-gathering. Radiation sickness can be lethal, and it's a form of it that reduces Superman to a defeated hero. It's also the reason why water bears should have saved the Enterprise instead of Captain Kirk.

Superman didn't destroy the Russian meteor earlier this year because it would have destroyed the city. Quoting from an earlier piece that you can read right here on Scientific American : Superman, who seemed to know a fair bit about reporting, used the International Space Station ISS to convince reporters during the conference that smashing the meteor with a super punch would be a terrible idea. Superman continued, "thankfully, the atmosphere absorbed most of the meteor's energy, with only the aftermath of the fireball doing damage to Chelyabinsk.

Superman probably shaves with an angle grinder. Everything about Superman is super, even his beard. Bill Nye has a theory on how Superman takes care of his tough-as-steel five o'clock shadow. It's product placement but it's also good science.

The Mythbusters have an answer too. Superman once gave Lex Luthor cognitive dissonance. In the issue Superman 2 from , Lex Luthor, Superman's arch-nemesis, dumped resources into building a supercomputer able to deduce the hero's identity.

The machine worked like a dream and out the answer popped: "Clark Kent is Superman. But Luthor refused to believe it. The evil genius couldn't easily resolve the cognitive dissonance in his head. In psychology, cognitive dissonance is an internal tension between two beliefs a person holds. When it arises, we seek to alleviate that tension by compartmentalizing the beliefs or coming up with an explanation to deal with it.

Lex simultaneously held the belief that Superman was Clark Kent and that he was too smart not to realize that obvious answer. To get rid of the dissonance, Lex made a logical fallacy that we can call "the argument from brilliance. In the comics, Superboy uses white Kryptonite in the 50th century to stop a rapidly growing alien plant that originated from a crashed alien spacecraft from spreading. One of the most surprising versions of the crystal is platinum which has no real effect on Kryptonians but its radiation causes changes in human physiology.

It grants the powers of a Kryptonian to a human permanently which one would think would become an often-used plot device, but this version hasn't appeared much. Superman originally gave it to Batman as a gift but, of course, Batman doesn't use the mineral for himself.

This Kryptonite was actually created on Smallville to help Clark Kent destroy his reprogrammed and evil personality Kal-El. In the comics, the Kryptonite debuted with the same effects as it did in Smallville , effectively splitting Kara Zor-El AKA Supergirl into two beings: one evil, one good. However, for Superman, black Kryptonite caused him to lose his mind and turn him evil. The Batman Who Laughs uses black Kryptonite for some grisly murders. One of the stranger versions of Kryptonite, Superman does not lose his powers nor is he harmed by it.

Instead, Kryptonians are affected by it similar to cannabis where it removes inhibitions, causes food cravings, and can provide hallucinations. In Smallville , it also is depicted as a hallucinogenic except instead of acting like a drug, it caused Clark to feel extreme paranoia and experience delusions that everyone was out to get him. EFFECTS Not only does it prevent the further absorption of solar energy, it displaces, painfully, said solar energy with kryptonite radiation causing the immediate loss of a Kryptonian's superhuman abilities within seconds and can, depending on the purity and exposure length, lead to the death of a Kryptonian by a form of "radiation poisoning".

Improve this answer. Community Bot 1. Thaddeus Howze Thaddeus Howze k 22 22 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Im wondering if the radiation is more a vacuum to supermans stored solar energy, then it is a blocker. Since he feels "drained" every time he's around it. The Kryptonite "pushes" out Superman's stored energy and replaces it with poisonous radiation he cannot process! When you mentioned it 'inhibits absorption' it made me think of how ethanol makes you drunk inhibits the uptake of methanol makes you blind.

Or carbon monoxide being absorbed instead our oxygen by haemoglobin. Perhaps a similar analogy would help your already very good answer? I asked this question hoping to get an answer from specifically you, Thaddeus. You rocked it again. So, it basically sucks the sunlight out of him?

Show 1 more comment. No, Krypton was not made of Kryptonite - at least, not initially. Kevin Matheny Kevin Matheny 1 1 gold badge 4 4 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges. If Kryptonite is radioactive, is it also lethal to humans then?

Lex Luthor got cancer from all the time he spent working with Kryptonite. Show 8 more comments. You're Earthling, but lots of Earth-based rocks can hurt you Radioactive ores. Crazy Frog Crazy Frog k gold badges silver badges bronze badges.

Even regular Earth rock can hurt you JonStory Or even if they are big enough — CBredlow. JonStory: Wouldn't it be great if it turned out that ordinary human beings could lift tons of kryptonite effortlessly, punch through walls of it, hurl boulders of it into orbit Technically our sun isn't yellow.

It's white and only looks yellow because Earth's atmosphere scatters blue. And this is because of two things: cells and radiation. It is thought that the people of Krypton had a much denser molecular structure and therefore, it would be extremely hard for anything to penetrate through their supremely compact molecules! It would be like having a body of Kevlar! Not only are Kryptonian cells very dense, but they can metabolize solar radiation. The radiation given off by Krypton's red sun was too weak for Kryptonians to process.

Yet, when Superman lands on Earth and into the light of our younger star, he is able to take the radiation from our yellow sun and metabolize it—the way a green plant converts light from the sun into energy through a process called Photosynthesis.

This extra boost from the sun gives Superman the ability for flight, super strength and invincibility. Superman is invincible! But, there is a BIG exception to that statement. This alien element is so well-known and engrained into pop-culture, that Microsoft Word recognizes it and can auto-correct to it for you! The element comes in many forms, but the most iconic is as a glowing, green rock.