Lab 005: Wakanda Forever

The streets are talking about us.

I really love Jordan Peele. You could just see how smart he is.

Listen. I like horror, but not like no plot line.

This has made my eyes are peeled, they're dry when I leave the movies because I know I need to look for every little clue.

Like where is it that ambulance? It might mean something?

Right, And everybody turns into researchers. Listen, everybody turns into a detective exactly everybody.

Yes, people are saying did you see whatever was embroidered on the shirt? And I'm like, on the shirt, what was it?

How did you see?

People are turning into what's the name of that movie with Tom Hanks where he was running around da Vinci Code Yes, Code, da Vinci Code us Yes. And I love it because you could really see like people's scientific minds coming out and it's so beautiful. I'm like, look at Jordan Peele turned us all into PhDs.

Listen, everybody got on a PhD is suspense Okay, I'm t T and I'm the key and.

From Spotify Studios, this is Dope Labs.

So everybody is going crazy about Jordan Peel's US. Yes, people are seeing it two, three, four times in a row at the theater, just trying to piece.

All those clues together.

But another reason why we really love it is because, just like with Get Out, Jordan Peel is making these blockbuster movies but with primarily black characters. Yes, right, And so I feel like every time something like this happens when we have these black and minority characters in these huge films, everybody goes crazy, like get Out us crazy

Last time people were this excited, I feel like it.

Had to be Black Panther. Yes, that was revolutionary.

I feel like for us, Black Panther was doubly exciting exactly because not only was it, you know, these black superheroes which we had never seen before, well.

We've seen them before, you know, but not like this, not like that.

But then there was also this whole like science and tech aspect of Black Panther that we were just like, yes, because black people were at the forefront.

Surrey, Surrey is listen when Surrey came on the screen, I was like, a TT girl, is that you girl?

I was like, I totally identify with Surrey.

Did Marble run you your check? Marvel? Were you following me around?

Duke?

Come on somebody?

Because I was like, this is TT. I loved it.

I love watching her create things, event things, modify things, and prove things, but then also just be super fun and dope and funny and all these things like that.

So I really really loved it.

So today we are talking about Wakanda, specifically vibranium, because that's really the star of that movie.

Yes, okay, this makes me very happy. Yes, T is in our happy space.

Yes, because for those of you who don't know, my parents are West African and I also am a material scientist and engineer. So Wakanda just encompasses all the things that I love, yes, Africa and science.

So let's kick off the recitation, right.

We want vibranium, and we want it now, but we also want to know a little bit more about it.

Let's hear from you. Here are some of your thoughts on vibranium and its possibilities.

Vibranium can do anything.

Libranium is powerful, like it can.

It can reverse time, it can stop bullets, it can heal you. It's amazing. It's already had a lot of applications weaponized for defense, military, civil.

I mean, it's kind of like hopeful, right. Vibranium, I think is like just wronger armor.

So if you get hit, obviously it absorbs the force and gives it back.

Do you think that there's anything out there in our world that is like vibranium.

The closest thing I could think of is carbon fiber. If you could treat it or reinforce it, it's a pretty durable material.

I would say CBD is closer to vibranium.

At least it heals.

What about absorbing impact, well, depends what kind of impact we're talking about. Come on something.

Mental impact, anxiety, Okay, stress.

Yeah, I think that's possible. I don't know if we found it or not, but I mean, I'm sure y'all gonna tell us.

So here's my thing about vibranium, and it's part of why I wanted to do this episode.

Today.

I was a little sad because I had all that joy from Black Panther, but then the way Avengers Infinity War ended was to Chialla turned into toast crunk, Like, hey.

B what happened to the vibranium? I was devastated.

Oh don't know how vibranium works, right, I was like, excuse me, hello, Marvel, Like, we saw a lot of stuff happen in Black Panther, and he was not supposed to die.

He shouldn't be able to die.

He should have just absorbed all of that and then been bounced it back exactly and killed Thanos. And so I'm trying to get all the clues I can about what might happen next without reading the spoiler blogs, right, But the only way I can know what happens next is by knowing, like what happened so far?

And what are the like? Tell me more about VIBRAINI. I want to know all about it. And that's why I'm so lucky to have you here to explain it, because it's totally your wheelhouse. You are everything physical sciences, materials, engineering, physics equals MC square. That's you, that's your arena. Those are all my favorite things. And I'm always like, huh, so I have questions is it possible?

Word did y'all to come back?

Because the new Avengeance movie is coming out Endgame Avengers and Game.

But I really want to know, like what happened? Is it over for? Is it over for Wakanda or is it Wakanda forever? It's Wakanda forever, I think.

And then I want to know is any of this stuff possible? Because science fiction is sometimes a whole lot of science and only a little bit of fiction.

So I think that a lot of the stuff that's in Black Panther could be possible. There are parts of it where you kind of have to stretch a little bit of reality, but all of it falls in line with some type of physics and chemistry that we already know.

That you already know.

Because that some folks know that that's a special group of people and I'm not in that group.

So yeah, I feel like I understand a lot of the physics and a lot of the chemistry and a lot of the materials science, and so for me, I want to know how these things are being played out in the lab, Like what are scientists doing now to push us towards Wakanda?

And it feels like it's more real, like it's more of a possibility in these kind of fields. Absolutely like that movie felt like this stuff is around the corner, like.

Those Kimoio beads that are on their wrist. That reminds me of an Apple Watch.

That's an Apple Watch. Come on Apple Watch five with a hologram. I want to see it. Is that gonna be in the next update?

Imagine Uncle Curtis's hologram popping up right in front of you, right man.

First of all, that is my dad, and I'd have to turn that feature off because he'd be like, what y'all talking about it?

That makes me so happy?

So I want to know is it possible and what needs to happen to make it possible? And if you have vibranium, because you're talking real casual about it, if you have something that's close to it, or are those little heart shaped herbs?

I want to know about it.

And just like you've been doing in all the previous episodes, for me, I will hold your hand through this.

Take me slow, Take me slow, okay. So that brings us to the dissection.

And to help us, we've called on doctor James Cacalius.

I'm a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota and the author of the Physics of Superheroes.

So full disclaimer, we know that the stuff that's going on in Black Panther is science fiction emphasis on the fiction, but it's still.

A lot of fun to like really stretch your scientific muscle and ask, like what if?

Yeah, and theorizing about some of this stuff using actual science is also just a great way to sharpen up some of your scientific skills, like critical thinking.

And doctor Kacalius tells us that one of the fun things about the science of Superheroes is that it forces you to ask, Okay, is this possible? And then what do I have to change about the laws of physics to get this to work? And specifically, what is the minimum thing that has to change to get this to work? As opposed to waving your hands and saying everything can be different.

And that's how we advance our knowledge and understanding. So to some extent, talking about the science of superheroes is kind of like weight training for our brain.

So what we're going to be doing with this episode is talking about the science inside of Black Panther to try and understand how far away we are from Wakanda. Yeah, that is it a little gap. Is it like mind the Gap or is.

It like the.

How far away are we from some of this technology? Yeah, so let's start with the basics. Let's set the scene for the land of Wakanda. Thousands of years ago, a meteor approaches the earth. Once it lands, that meteorite has vibranium in it, and there are five tribes arguing over the vibranium that's now been deposited by this meteorite.

Eventually, four of the five tribes reconciled and the Kingdom of Waconda was formed. And with vibranium, they were able to develop technology that was more advanced than any other country, but they were able to keep it all under wraps. So, like you remember, from the outside looking in, it looked like just an open plane, right, But then once you got past that force field, it was the jetsons.

And so then my question is are there places like that right now where they're just holding up a sheet that looks like.

There's nothing here? Move along, look behind the curtain. Yeah, is a place like this possible?

Yes?

And no? So what are the things that leads to a advanced city advanced country? Is access to unique, valuable natural resources? And Wakanda having access to the meteor that contain vibranium certainly fits the bill there. The question is do they have all of the natural resources that they might need to develop advanced.

Technologies, resources like silicon, phosphorus, boron, aluminum, gallium, all of these things that are kind of like found in the earth. But they also help with advancing our technology, so they help make circuits that are put into our cell phones and things like that, and help with all types of technological advances.

So what you're gonna need is vibranium and all these other materials all in the same place, specifically if you're not gonna interact with the outside world and keep all of this under wraps. Yes, I think there are two major things that really shine for me in Black Panther, aside from Surrey our queen. It is the vibranium and then that heart shaped orb which is basically cilantro.

So I love cilantro. Cilantro tastes like soap. Mm hmm, that's you have a mutation. I need to tell you? Did you just tell me?

I have a teenage view Ninja turtle not quite like that, but close all the taste buds so I do like pizza.

Oh my gosh.

So there's vibranium and then there's that herb, right, and so for me, I always thought of vibranium is like this special purple element.

So in chemistry, things are classified by how they are put together. So for the purpose of this episode, we're gonna focus on three categories, atom, element, and molecule. If you think about them like legos, one single lego is an atom is the building block of all things, and then an element is basically what color that lego is, So blue lego, so blue would be the element. And then when you start to stack those legos, that's when

Because if it's an element, it's an element that behaves in a way that no other element ever has.

Okay, So the reason it might be a molecule is because of its behavior, so like what it can do?

That's right.

So you know how the periodic table of elements is set up, and it's not set up randomly. It's this big grid of letters and everything on it that we all saw in high school. But they are arranged in very specific ways, and that arrangement is dependent on each element's properties. And the way that vibranium is, it would fall way outside of the periodic table.

It feels an element.

So what are some of the properties of vibranium that make it so amazing? In black panther like, what are some of the properties? We see them kind of exploiting. Can you walk us through that?

So one of the main things about vibranium, which is how I think it got its name, is that it has this ability to absorb vibrations.

It's like super absorbent for any kind of vibration, any kind of oscillation, any kind of sound.

And vibrations can come in different forms. So when we whittle it all down to one word, it's energy. And so you can get vibrations from heat, you can get vibrations from sound. Yes, you can get vibrations from physical contact, which we see in black panther. And what vibranium is able to do is take all of those vibrations and store it and hold on to it in a way that most molecules can't.

Y'all, but open your mind, see, okay, because CT is dropping some gems. I thought you could only get vibration from sound.

No, So if you think about a piece of glass, if you were to take a if you were to take a glass and you were to pour hot water into it, eventually the entire glass will be hot.

Right.

That heat is actually vibrations in the hot water that are being transferred to the glass, and that glass those molecules that make up the glass start to vibrate as well.

Is that how water is boiling.

It's erupting mm hmm, it spawns being broken, and that's how water turns into steam.

When they said good vibrations, they didn't just mean sound. They meant physical, okay.

And the other really cool thing about energy is that it can't be creator or destroyed. It has to be coming from somewhere and going somewhere.

So presumably that energy has to show up in some other place.

I think one of the coolest things we saw was sure in the lab and that suit made of vibran new how is he kicking the suit and falling backwards.

Weapons is that when t'chala goes to kick the suit and once it hits the suit, the vibranium has this unique ability to store that energy. When he goes to kick the suit the second time, the suit is able to give off that energy that he first put into the suit.

So that's why when T'Challa kicks the suit on the mannequin the first time, it goes flies across the room, and then he kicks it at the same spot the second time, and then he gets kicked across the room because it stored that energy and then gave it back to him as a recoil the next time.

And so it's just transferring. It's transferring from him to the suit, and then the suit is storing it to go right back out right to him. It's almost like the scientific version of my haters make me stronger, right, So if you think about it, somebody's insulting you or injuring or punching at you, it just builds up and then you're able to take those hits and push them right back out.

Next thing you know, you Barack Obama.

Soh Now I'm getting a better understanding of how this works, and then I'm also starting to think about some of its limitations. Now I feel like you and doctor Kacallius and the rest of your physical sciences crew have been holding out. Are there any other materials that we should know about that have some really cool features?

So there's nothing exactly like vibranium, but there are some things out there that have similar qualities, And one of my favorites is something called a piezo electric. It's a material that when you apply stressed to it, so it could be in the form of pressure, it changes the materials properties slightly so that it then generates electricity. The way it's kind of like vibranium is that it's taking one form of energy and its output is a different

This can be seen in actually in something as simple as water where you can develop a bubble and you pound it with sound waves and the bubble actually glows and gives off light.

My favorite material right now is the strongest material known to man.

What is it graphene?

And it's basically a single layer of carbon that's arranged in a very specific way.

It is only made of carbon, so only carbon, one gray lego.

So it's basically six gray legos arranged in a hexagon.

Scientists have actually studied how bulletproof graphene is. It's stronger than steel, it's stronger than lead, it's stronger than kevlo.

A thin layer of it that's about the thickness of saran wrap. It would take an elephant balancing on a pencil to break it.

So you have to concentrate that weight, yes, and it would have to be a lot two tons. A ton is about two thousand pounds, so we're talking about four.

Thousand pounds on a pencil.

This is what's crazy to me, though tt Like you just told me how awesome vibranium is. It can store energy. When Thano snapped his fingers, that's vibrational energy. I don't know, I don't know what kind of vibration is it's something. Why didn't that suit save t Challa.

That is a very good question, because up until this point, vibranium is the answer to all of our problems. Yeah, but the Infinity Gauntlet seems to have some type of cheat code work around that does not work on vibranium.

Once he has all six Infinity Stones Thanos, including of course, remember the Reality Stone, he has the power of basically a god, and at that point the laws of physics are subject to change with the snap of a finger.

So this is a case where there's only a little bit of science and a lot of fiction because we know no one is napping their fingers and eliminating the laws of physics. But this makes me hopeful, right, This makes me feel like anything could happen in the sequel.

Like people could come back from the bottom of the toaster.

Yes, and just reassemble whole slice of bread. I'm ready.

So when we get back, we're going to dive into some other Marvel characters that we have questions about, like Thor that's a fine man and Iron Man Tony Stark has all the tech, but sure he may have them.

Be stay tuned.

So we're back and all this talk about superheroes made us wonder if you could have any superpower, what would it be.

Here's what y'all said.

Teleportation the ability to like leave one situation a one time sp place and appear in another.

My superpower would be to like convey emotions, like and receive emotions. It's kind of cheesy, but I think one of the biggest impasses we have with solving social issues is like a lack of empathy. And I think if you could literally put yourself in someone's position and understand, like where they're coming from and how the world is affecting them, we could make a lot of progress and solve a lot of issues.

So, like a new age Captain Planet met Heart, my tea was the most powerful all along.

I like you.

I would say time travel too.

The same dimission, different dimension different So you want to be able to go back and forth and lift.

And right all of it. I want to hop around. I want to go back in time, fix some stuff. Go ahead, pick some stuff up. Butterfly fat, I saw to the future too too. That's the one. That's the one.

Everything with vibranium kind of makes sense to me. But then there are some parts of the marble world that I just can't wrap my mind around you and me both. One of them is Thor's hammer. And the way that Thor's Hammer came to be was that Odin whispered into this hammer and said, whoever's worthy can pick it up, whoever's not can't pick it up, right. But I wanted to know if that is a physical property. Is there some chemistry associated with that.

The hammer is made of, as you know, uru metal, presumably in the handle of the hammer, there is some biosensors of some sort that can quickly scan whoever's trying to lift the hammer, and using criteria that Odin only knows, they can determine whether you meet the worthiness threshold or not.

Like something that scans your eyeball is a biosensor, and so you're so something like that that's scanning your hand when you go to pick it up detects who you are.

Yeah, So that's one scientific theory that might explain Thorst's hammer, and the other has to do with how it can manipulate its weight. If Thort's hammer were just heavy, the hulks should be able to pick it up somehow, right, And and he isn't and we would also see it falling through tables and anything that it was placed on top of, which we don't see.

Right, So somehow it's got to be able to change its heaviness at will. And so presumably URU metal, when sufficiently triggered, when the handles it determines that someone's trying to lift it who's not worthy, Uru metal will emit gravitons.

What are gravitons?

The idea of gravitans is a theory, and it's this theory that says that the way that we are all weighted down so with gravity, is actually particles that are emitted from all things.

So all things have these particles associated with them, yes, and what are those particles gravitons?

So how does that play into the hammer? Though?

So as soon as you touch the hammer, if it says you are not worthy, then it starts to emit gravitons that are equivalent to the force that you're applying, but in the opposite direction. So as you're pulling up, it is emitting gravitons down with that same amount of force.

So even though it may be there's no net movement, there's no net movement.

Is there vibranium in the hammer, because it feels like it is absorbing some of that.

Like, that's crazy.

So that's why when Tony Stark and Rody are trying to lift the hammer at the same time, they're applyotting this large upward force. But the weight of the hammer, it just emits more gravitons and the weight of the hammer increases, thus that there's no net force. If there's no net force, an object at rest remains at rest.

And then as soon as you let go, the gravitons just stop emitting.

So what about the big blue power source in oron man's chest.

Right, that's a lot of power to holding your chest? Is that like heartburn? That's what that feels like to me.

Sometimes, Shoot, I agree, man, we get old. We're talking about heartburning.

Thought.

It's called an arc reactor. It's about the size of a hockey puck and puts out the power of three nuclear power plants. And they don't say it directly, but they kind of imply at some point in the first movie that it is an essence a nuclear fusion reactor.

Okay, so you already know my question nuclear fusion.

So there's two different types of ways to generate these large amounts of energy. So one is fission and one is fusion. Fission is when you take a really large nucleus of an atom and you break it apart, and that process of breaking it apart generates a lot of energy. Fusion is when you take two smaller nuclei and put them together. In the act of pushing them together generates energy.

So the take fission, where you take a big nucleus and split it apart, is the atomic bomb. Fusion, where you take to smaller nuclei and fuse them together is the hydrogen bomb.

Fusion and fission are just two ways to generate the energy. That energy is stored in that hockey book in Tony Stark's chest, and that's what powers the Iron Man suit exactly.

And the other crazy thing about Iron Man is that, you know how he's just shooting lasers and flying and he doesn't have to say fly or shoot hyperbeam or whatever. He just kind of thinks about it. Doctor Cacalius says that that is a real thing that is not fiction, is just science.

Wait a minute, there are scientists who are working on cybernetic helmets and one of them, his name is Ben He first name Bin, second name he He, and if you google Bin He and helicopter, you will see students in his lab wearing a cybernetic helmet that are piloting a remote control helicopter through an obstacle course.

He uses brain signals, So he puts this cap with all of these sensors on it, and he uses signals from people's brains to control how things move.

Professor he is not trying to develop an Iron Man suit. What he's doing is trying to develop treatments for paralysis and improvements in prosthetic devices.

So if you had were to have this attached to you, you could think, I want to raise my arm and be able to raise the arm.

That's crazy.

That's like Professor X that's Magneto, that's all of those people.

Hey, we got to get X men. We've got to be X men. I'm ready. What's your na be an X man?

Because I'm gonna be my own villain and I'm gonna have me a laugh. I'm gonna be less X men and more like what was that movie aon Flux where I want to be like Atomic Blonde. She had the best outfits, Okay, and I want to be able to have a lab on the back of a eighteen wheeler and I can just travel around with my lab and do science.

So what did you think? See?

So when we started this episode, we were just really focused on Black Panther and the science fiction and how could it be real? But now my eyes are open to all of these other things that are possible, and this is just what we know about, right this is public information for everyone, you know, like technology is moving.

So fast and everything is advanced.

Like I think something we talked with doctor Cacalius about was like people were thinking there will be hoverboards, but we got something even better an iPhone.

Okay.

So I mean when you start really figuring out, like who's going to be leading the next direction, what's going to be the next big push. I don't know what it's going to be, but I am feeling really optimistic that I'm going to have a hologram on the Apple Watch five like ha, and that graphing is gonna save me.

Yeah, because I mean when you think about graphing and what it could do possibly, we're talking about like the military and making like things that are stronger than kevlar, so like bulletproofing, material is going to be on a thou Wow in just a few years. Yeah.

I felt so inspired, and it made me kind of ask, is this like one of those art imitates life or life imitates art in this case?

Right, because doctor Kakali has talked a lot about the science fiction, but then he also talked a lot about science that is actually going on that sounds very futuristic.

So I think it can be both.

I think we can inspire artists that make these movies to push the technology, but then we can also watch the movies and be inspired to create new things in the lab.

You need the science and you need the art, and the art needs the science. Like I feel like it's just like a beautiful marriage.

Right, and that's what we are. I think we are art and science.

There we go and Marvel if you're listening, t T needs to be the Next Door. For more on today's episode, check out our cheat sheet and the show notes at Dope Labs podcast dot com. So we're gonna be doing an Instagram live on Thursday, April eighteenth, and we will reveal the theme for our next episode, So make sure you.

Tune in and our phone lines are always open. You can always leave us a question or comment, or even text us. Our number is two zero two five six seven seven zero two eight. That's two zero two five six seven seven zero two eight.

You can find us on Twitter and Instagram at Dope Last Podcast.

TT is on Twitter and Instagram at Doctor Underscore t Sho and you.

Can find Zakia at z said So, and if.

You do love the show, don't forget to follow us on Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts.

Special thanks today to our guest, doctor James Accalius. Check out his book The Physics of Superheroes at Kakalius dot com.

That's k A k A l i o s dot com.

Our producer is Jenny Rattle at MAAST. Mixing and sound design by Hannis Brown. Special thanks to Max Nester.

Original theme music by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Sugiuer. Additional music by Elijah Alex Harvey.

Dope Labs is brought to you by three M and is a production of Spotify Studios and Mega Owned Media Group, and it is executive produced by us T. T.

Shadia and Zakiah Wattley.

Okay, so when we get back, we're gonna dive into some other Marvel characters that we have some questions about, like Thor and yes, and man, what that is? A fine man, let's be honest. Okay, you can bring that hammer to my house.