9 Humans With Real-Life X-Men Mutant Super Powers
Today, rabid fan boys and girls around the world will stand in line for hours to see X-Men: Days of Future Past. But if it’s mutant super powers they wanted to see, there’s no need to depend on some fictional, CGI-enhanced Hollywood make-em-ups. There are very real people with very real gene-based super abilities all around us!
First, let’s start off with the fact that mutations do not mean retractable adamantium claws nor the ability to control the weather. In fact, these little genetic typos typically result in very minor changes, which (when they aren’t deadly) are often not visible.
Mutations are the means by which nature adds new variants into the genetic pool. If these traits are advantageous (or at least benign), they are passed along through the generations until they become a normal part of a species’ grander gene pool.
Without mutations, evolution would not be possible—species could never gain new abilities or attributes. For example, in our species’ recent past (around 12,000 years ago), a single human had a mutation which gave him the “superpower” to drink cow’s milk and not get sick, which was then passed to half the world’s population. Now we have cheeseburgers.
Scientists believe that every time the human genome duplicates itself there are around 100 new mutations. They’re pretty common, and usually negligible. However, it would stand to reason that within the pantheon of human mutations, some would express themselves in the form of extraordinary superhuman abilities.
Check out our slideshow for nine examples of medically verified human abilities resulting from minute changes in genetic code. Or, to put it in a much more interesting way: Here are nine examples of real-life mutant super heroes. . .