Read the article "Spider-Man and Extreme Science: A Web of Connections?" Then
answer the questions. Question 1
Which statement best explains how the author introduces a central idea in the first
Spider-Man and Extreme Science: A Web of Connections?
few paragraphs of the article?
by Nick D'Alto
1 Chomp! A radioactive spider bites chemistry student Peter Parker and he
becomes the Amazing Spider-Man. Zap! Gamma rays mutate physicist Bruce Banner
into the green-skinned "Hulk." Fiction?
2 That depends. How much are real scientists like scientists from the comic books?
Does comic book science inspire real scientific breakthroughs, and vice versa? Let's
see.
Incredible, Unpredictable. . .Sometimes Scary Real Science
3 Real-life extreme scientists have performed some incredible "maverick” Question 2
experiments of their own. Chemist Marie Curie helped discover radioactivity. And
while we don't know of any scientists who have been blasted with gamma rays Which statements accurately describe how central ideas from "Spider-Man and
(which are generated by radioactive atoms and in nuclear explosions), they have Extreme Science: A Web of Connections?" are shaped and refined over the course
experimented with numerous forms of radiation. of the text? Select all that apply.
4 Just as in the comics, real scientific mavericks may begin their work when an
unusual event (even an accident) occurs that puts them in great peril. Extreme
engineer Nikola Tesla was exposed to immense electrical discharges while perfecting
AC current. To isolate the element radium, Marie Curie unknowingly absorbed lethal
radiation. Galileo's astronomy left him almost blind. Ben Franklin's extreme lightning
experiment nearly electrocuted him. (Franklin's perils inspired the novel
Frankenstein.)
5 But the discoveries made by real maverick scientists often isolate them for a
period rather than make them famous like comic book heroes. Why? Because their
discoveries are often way out of the box. The scientists are so immersed in work,
which only they understand, that they can seem strange! (Does a bushy-haired,
whacky scientist come to mind?)
6 Science is filled with examples. Geologist Alfred Wegener's idea that continents
move (today called plate tectonics) was once called nonsense. Maverick geneticist
Barbara McClintock (1983 Nobel Prize winner for discovering that genes are mobile Question 3
within the chromosomes of a plant cell) wasn't recognized as a genius until she was
in her 80s. Paleontologist Robert Bakker's "heresy" that dinosaurs were fast (not Which statement most clearly expresses one way comics imitate real science,
slow, as everyone thought) proved true. according to the article?
7 But extreme science also can be a gamble. Canals on Mars and "cold fusion" are
maverick notions that turned out to be plumb wrong.
8 For science historian David Rhees of the Bakken Museum in Philadelphia,
extreme science is all about the unknown, and the unknown is always scary.
"Whether it's chemistry in the 1930s or cloning today, maverick science challenges
our beliefs," he says. "That can scare us," adds sociologist-historian Peter Schmidt of
the University of Minnesota, who did his master's thesis on the science of comic
, books!
9 So you might say that maverick science and comic book science both put the
hero in jeopardy as the excitement unfolds.
Fact to Fiction or Fiction to Fact?
10 So maverick scientists do bear some resemblance to their comic book heroes.
And real science can be scary and seem like magic. (In comics, superheroes can fly
or become invisible; in Einstein's theory of relativity, space is curved, and particles
appear to travel back in time.) But how about the ultimate question: Does comic book
science mimic . . . or maybe even predict . . . real tech breakthroughs?
11 Peter Schmidt points to Wonder Woman's invisible plane (today's stealth fighter)
and Dick Tracy's wrist radio (check out your cell phone) to show that the real world
also draws from the world of fiction. "Cell phones use a technology where electrons
pass through solid barriers," observes physicist Dr. James Kakalois. "Someday you
might crawl up a wall like Spider-Man. Looking at gecko lizards that climb vertically
using microfilaments on their feet, scientists are devising a tape that mimics the
filaments.”
12 Kakalois should know; he teaches a course at the University of Minnesota
entitied "The Science of Superheroes." To Kakalois, a condensed matter
experimentalist, it's no accident that so many comic heroes—from Reed Richards
(The Fantastic Four) to Ray Palmer (The Atom)—are also scientists. "Spider-Man
appeared when atomic power was the new science," Kakalois says. "Marvel's X-Men
are mutants—sounds like genetic engineering [to me]. In fact, one recent discovery
in quantum states turned up in the comics just months later. Yes, maverick science
definitely inspires comics," he says.
13 In class, Kakalois's students deduce how Superman leaps tall buildings by
applying Newton's laws of motion. Then they calculate how many calories (in Big
Macs) the Flash would need to run at warp speed.
14 Soifreal science and comic book science are intertwined, they also face some of
the same dilemmas. Would you use science to do good (as Spider-Man does) or to
do evil (like his enemy, Dr. Octopus)? Rhees sees that same question in Dr. Jekyll &
Mr. Hyde and other tales of mavericks who risked too much. "Hero or villain? Atomic
energy or atomic bomb? Science always has two sides," he says.
15 "With great power comes great responsibility"—recognize that quote from
Spider-Man #1? Whether it's Peter Parker or tomorrow's human cloning researcher,
good or evil is a decision every scientific maverick has to make. The greatest
superheroes use their brains and technology to save others—and that's not fiction!
"Spider-Man and Extreme Science: A Web of Connections?" by Nick D'Alto, from
Odyssey Magazine, December 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Carus Publishing
Company d/b/a Cricket Media.
answer the questions. Question 1
Which statement best explains how the author introduces a central idea in the first
Spider-Man and Extreme Science: A Web of Connections?
few paragraphs of the article?
by Nick D'Alto
1 Chomp! A radioactive spider bites chemistry student Peter Parker and he
becomes the Amazing Spider-Man. Zap! Gamma rays mutate physicist Bruce Banner
into the green-skinned "Hulk." Fiction?
2 That depends. How much are real scientists like scientists from the comic books?
Does comic book science inspire real scientific breakthroughs, and vice versa? Let's
see.
Incredible, Unpredictable. . .Sometimes Scary Real Science
3 Real-life extreme scientists have performed some incredible "maverick” Question 2
experiments of their own. Chemist Marie Curie helped discover radioactivity. And
while we don't know of any scientists who have been blasted with gamma rays Which statements accurately describe how central ideas from "Spider-Man and
(which are generated by radioactive atoms and in nuclear explosions), they have Extreme Science: A Web of Connections?" are shaped and refined over the course
experimented with numerous forms of radiation. of the text? Select all that apply.
4 Just as in the comics, real scientific mavericks may begin their work when an
unusual event (even an accident) occurs that puts them in great peril. Extreme
engineer Nikola Tesla was exposed to immense electrical discharges while perfecting
AC current. To isolate the element radium, Marie Curie unknowingly absorbed lethal
radiation. Galileo's astronomy left him almost blind. Ben Franklin's extreme lightning
experiment nearly electrocuted him. (Franklin's perils inspired the novel
Frankenstein.)
5 But the discoveries made by real maverick scientists often isolate them for a
period rather than make them famous like comic book heroes. Why? Because their
discoveries are often way out of the box. The scientists are so immersed in work,
which only they understand, that they can seem strange! (Does a bushy-haired,
whacky scientist come to mind?)
6 Science is filled with examples. Geologist Alfred Wegener's idea that continents
move (today called plate tectonics) was once called nonsense. Maverick geneticist
Barbara McClintock (1983 Nobel Prize winner for discovering that genes are mobile Question 3
within the chromosomes of a plant cell) wasn't recognized as a genius until she was
in her 80s. Paleontologist Robert Bakker's "heresy" that dinosaurs were fast (not Which statement most clearly expresses one way comics imitate real science,
slow, as everyone thought) proved true. according to the article?
7 But extreme science also can be a gamble. Canals on Mars and "cold fusion" are
maverick notions that turned out to be plumb wrong.
8 For science historian David Rhees of the Bakken Museum in Philadelphia,
extreme science is all about the unknown, and the unknown is always scary.
"Whether it's chemistry in the 1930s or cloning today, maverick science challenges
our beliefs," he says. "That can scare us," adds sociologist-historian Peter Schmidt of
the University of Minnesota, who did his master's thesis on the science of comic
, books!
9 So you might say that maverick science and comic book science both put the
hero in jeopardy as the excitement unfolds.
Fact to Fiction or Fiction to Fact?
10 So maverick scientists do bear some resemblance to their comic book heroes.
And real science can be scary and seem like magic. (In comics, superheroes can fly
or become invisible; in Einstein's theory of relativity, space is curved, and particles
appear to travel back in time.) But how about the ultimate question: Does comic book
science mimic . . . or maybe even predict . . . real tech breakthroughs?
11 Peter Schmidt points to Wonder Woman's invisible plane (today's stealth fighter)
and Dick Tracy's wrist radio (check out your cell phone) to show that the real world
also draws from the world of fiction. "Cell phones use a technology where electrons
pass through solid barriers," observes physicist Dr. James Kakalois. "Someday you
might crawl up a wall like Spider-Man. Looking at gecko lizards that climb vertically
using microfilaments on their feet, scientists are devising a tape that mimics the
filaments.”
12 Kakalois should know; he teaches a course at the University of Minnesota
entitied "The Science of Superheroes." To Kakalois, a condensed matter
experimentalist, it's no accident that so many comic heroes—from Reed Richards
(The Fantastic Four) to Ray Palmer (The Atom)—are also scientists. "Spider-Man
appeared when atomic power was the new science," Kakalois says. "Marvel's X-Men
are mutants—sounds like genetic engineering [to me]. In fact, one recent discovery
in quantum states turned up in the comics just months later. Yes, maverick science
definitely inspires comics," he says.
13 In class, Kakalois's students deduce how Superman leaps tall buildings by
applying Newton's laws of motion. Then they calculate how many calories (in Big
Macs) the Flash would need to run at warp speed.
14 Soifreal science and comic book science are intertwined, they also face some of
the same dilemmas. Would you use science to do good (as Spider-Man does) or to
do evil (like his enemy, Dr. Octopus)? Rhees sees that same question in Dr. Jekyll &
Mr. Hyde and other tales of mavericks who risked too much. "Hero or villain? Atomic
energy or atomic bomb? Science always has two sides," he says.
15 "With great power comes great responsibility"—recognize that quote from
Spider-Man #1? Whether it's Peter Parker or tomorrow's human cloning researcher,
good or evil is a decision every scientific maverick has to make. The greatest
superheroes use their brains and technology to save others—and that's not fiction!
"Spider-Man and Extreme Science: A Web of Connections?" by Nick D'Alto, from
Odyssey Magazine, December 2004. Copyright © 2004 by Carus Publishing
Company d/b/a Cricket Media.
