There are times when we would all like to have superpowers. For most of us, this has to remain an idle daydream. However, there are people walking among us who already have totally legitimate and totally cool superhuman powers.

And who knows, perhaps these are the tip of the iceberg. There may be lots of them, living in the shadows or hiding in plain sight, waiting for their chance to save (or destroy) the planet! Here are ten real-life people with honest-to-goodness superpowers.

10 The Real-Life Batman

As a baby, Daniel Kish developed retinoblastoma, a cancer which affects the eyes. He had to have both eyes removed before he reached his first birthday. In order to navigate his environment, Kish developed his own echolocation system, using the same techniques that bats use to fly in the dark. In fact, he has been referred to as “the real-life Batman.”

As he moved around, Kish would make clicking noises with his tongue. He realized that every surface had its own sound. He could recognize a tree, for example, because the trunk produces a different echo than the branches and the leaves.^[1]

By listening to the echoes from his clicking, Daniel Kish is able to build a 3-D image in his mind of the objects around him. It is thought that the clicking noises activate the visual functions of the brain, which enhance spatial and depth perceptions. Kish says that he can often find his way out of a concert hall quicker than a sighted person because he can identify the exit from a long distance away. If he is in a noisy place, he just increases the volume of his clicking sounds.

9 The Real-Life Mr. Freeze

Like all good superheroes, Wim Hof discovered his superpowers by accident. When he was 17, he was walking along a frozen canal in his home city of Amsterdam when he felt a powerful urge to jump in. So he did. He soon discovered that he has superhuman ability to withstand the cold, which has led him to claim 26 world records.

He tried to climb Everest in a pair of shorts. Although he made it through the Death Zone unharmed, he was forced to turn back, not by the temperature but by a foot injury. Hof has run barefoot marathons in the snow and broken his own record for ice submergence four times.

Researchers studying Wim Hof’s remarkable abilities have discovered that he is able to override the stress responses in his brain through breathing and meditation techniques. When he is exposed to extreme cold, his brain releases opioids and cannabinoids into his body, inhibiting the signals that register cold and pain. What is not yet clear is how this breathing affects other physical and biological processes, such as Hof’s superhuman ability to resist frostbite, which should be unaffected by his breathing technique.^[2]

8 The Real-Life Flash

Dean Karnazes can run forever. He is one of the most remarkable endurance athletes on the planet. He once ran nonstop for 563 kilometers (350 mi) over three days. He ran nonstop across Death Valley and even ran to the South Pole. Even among ultra-endurance athletes, Dean Karnazes is a superhuman.

Most runners are limited by their body’s lactate threshold. The body breaks down glucose for energy, producing lactate as a by-product. When you reach your lactate threshold, the body is no longer able to convert the lactate quickly enough, leading to an acid buildup in the muscles and a burning pain runners call “hitting the wall.” Running beyond your lactate threshold will lead to muscle fatigue, breathlessness, and a racing heart, until eventually you collapse in a sweating, gasping heap.

Dean Karnazes does not have a lactate threshold, which means that, theoretically, he can run forever.

Karnazes has never experienced any form of cramp or muscle ache, even during runs that last more than 160 kilometers (100 mi). The only thing that stops him is his need for sleep, and he has even sometimes experienced bouts of “sleep running,” where he was able to keep on moving while nodding off.^[3]

7 The Real-Life Spider-Man

Nicknamed the “French Spiderman,” Alain Robert is one of the best climbers on Earth. He is famous for his free solo-climbing exploits up skyscrapers, without the use of ropes or safety harness. The only “equipment” that he carries is a bag of chalk dust. Robert has climbed over 160 skyscrapers, including the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, and the Lloyd’s building in London.^[4]

Robert was arrested in October 2018 after scaling the Salesforce Tower in London. He climbed the 202-meter (662 ft) tower without safety equipment, while a crowd gathered below to watch him. Though he reached the top safely, he was soon arrested “on suspicion of causing public nuisance.”

Following a court hearing after the stunt, which only took around 45 minutes to complete, Robert was banned from climbing any building in the UK, which seems a shame. But, then again, the world is full of friendly neighborhoods with tall buildings.

6 The Real-Life Professor X

The actress Marilu Henner has superhuman mental powers. She has Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), an extremely rare condition which allows her total recall of basically every single moment of her life. Fewer than 100 people with the condition have been documented worldwide. Though HSAM would make life easier in many ways (imagine never having to wonder where you put your car keys), there are some disadvantages, too. People with HSAM are more likely to have anxiety disorders and suffer from depression or OCD.

Marilu Henner can recall the month, day, and time of every event that has happened in her life and can also recall things that were on the news or happened to other people. She first became aware of her ability at the age of six.

MRI tests have revealed that people with HSAM have larger temporal lobes and caudate nuclei than normal, but researchers are not sure whether this is the cause or the result of living with the condition. Whatever the cause, Henner has found living with HSAM pretty useful at times, particularly when learning lines.^[5]

5 The Real-Life Elastigirl

Javier Botet is a Spanish actor with a peculiar gift. His extremely long limbs and lean body give him the look of a human skeleton. When he made a screen test in 2013, many people assumed that they were watching a puppet because Botet was able to move his limbs in very unexpected and disturbing ways. Botet suffers from Marfan syndrome, which results in hyperflexibility.

His condition has allowed him to carve out a career in horror movies, where he has appeared as aliens, lepers, monsters, and mummies, as well as the urban folklore-inspired Slender Man. He first noticed the condition as a child and liked to fold his arms and legs into unusual shapes.^[6] (Well, we all need a hobby.)

Marfan syndrome is a rare genetic disorder, resulting in extreme height and slenderness as well as hyperflexibility. It can also cause heart defects and blindness. For the moment, however, Javier Botet is using this elastic powers to conquer Hollywood.

4 The Real-Life Overseer

An unnamed family from Connecticut has been the center of much study by genetic scientists due to their unusually high bone density. Just like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable, the family has a genetic mutation that means their bones never break.

No one in the family has ever had a fracture, and it is thought that they have the strongest bones on the planet, which is impressive. It appears that the condition is genetic. Scientists tested 20 members of the family, with just under half of them being found to have extra dense bones. It is hoped that by studying the DNA of those family members with the condition, researchers will be able to more fully understand the factors affecting bone density, which could lead to treatments for osteoporosis.^[7]

The condition means that the Connecticut family will never need a plaster cast, though they may find themselves spending a lot of money on plastic ponchos. (That’s an Unbreakable joke.)

3 The Real-Life Invisible Woman

It is a universally accepted truth that we all have a unique set of fingerprints. Even identical twins differ when it comes to the minute whorls and loops on a set of dabs. Modern technology has made use of this unique property when it comes to things like cybersecurity, which must make Cheryl Maynard feel pretty invisible.^[8]

Fingerprints are usually fully formed even before we are born. People with adermatoglyphia, however, are born with no fingerprints. (In the picture above, Cheryl’s finger is compared with a normal one.) It is believed that there are only four extended families in the world with this condition, caused by a genetic mutation.

The condition has left Cheryl Maynard feeling pretty invisible. Having no fingerprints has even made it difficult for her to get jobs. However, if she fancied a career as a criminal, she would have a head start.

2 The Real-Life Vision

In 1972, when Veronica Seider claimed to be able to see small objects 1.6 kilometers (1 mi) away, no one believed her. However, eyesight is pretty easy to test, so it soon became clear that Seider’s vision was truly exceptional. She was soon listed by Guinness World Records with eyesight 20 times more powerful than normal human beings.

Not only is she able to distinguish people and objects from 1.6 kilometers (1 mi) away, but she is also able to judge distance and position, which can be useful. And she can distinguish the individual colors that make up the color on a television set. Not so useful.^[9]

1 The Real-Life Deadpool

Okay, well maybe this isn’t exactly like Deadpool, but a woman identified only as “SM” has a condition known as Urbach-Wiethe, which has damaged parts of her brain. As a result, she feels no fear. At all. Totally fearless.

The condition manifested first as a complete lack of fear from all external stimuli—such as the large, venomous spiders and snakes she picked up as a child. Once, when she was being held up at knifepoint, her attacker was so unnerved by her lack of fear that he let her go.

Like all superheroes, however, SM does have one weakness. After a barrage of tests where she had shown no fear responses, she was exposed to carbon dioxide and suddenly had a panic attack. Neurologists studying her brain hypothesized that impending suffocation finally produced a fear response where no other stimuli could. However, when the test was repeated, SM did not show any anxiety until the gas started to take effect, proving that her response had been a physical reaction to suffocation rather than a psychological manifestation of fear.^[10]

It could be worse. She could be afraid of cows.

Ward Hazell is a writer who travels, and an occasional travel writer.

Superheroes are the objects of fancy and admiration for millions the world over. They right wrongs, protect the weak, and rescue society from innumerable forms of injustice and peril. There’s only one glaring problem: They aren’t real. The incredible feats performed by these stalwart defenders are made possible by uncanny powers that, sadly, are fictional.

Or are they?

SEE ALSO: 10 Real-Life People With Real Superpowers

What if I told you that natural superpowers exist sealed away in our bodies, only waiting for the proper training to awaken them? Well, as unbelievable as this may sound, it is actually true. So if you’re ready to transcend your fragile human shell and become the superhero you’ve always dreamed of being, here’s a list of ten abilities that you can unlock to become a superhuman!

10 Superhuman Strength

Strength is a much more complex concept than many realize. It is not just about how much muscle we have, but even more so how well we use it. One need not be a bodybuilder to have super strength, as proven by grand master strongman and pound-for-pound strongest man in the world Dennis Rogers. Rogers has performed many incredible feats of strength, including preventing airplanes from taking off and holding back four Harley-Davidson motorcycles at once. These are impressive feats for any strongman but are especially incredible considering that Dennis Rogers is only 168 centimeters tall (5’6″) and 76 kilograms (168 lb). And he’s in his fifties. So how does he do it? The answer is plyometrics.

The goal of plyometrics is to access more of the dormant strength in our muscles by partially bypassing a natural function of the nervous system called the inhibition reflex. The golgi tendon organ (GTO)—present in every muscle—sends nerve impulses to our spinal cords every time we use a muscle. The spinal cord then responds with an inhibition reflex, which limits the amount of power your muscle can use. This process exists because human muscles are capable of creating a higher degree of force than they and other structural elements of the body can withstand. If not for this, reflex muscles would tear themselves from tension, and people would strike things with more force than their bones and tendons could handle without breaking. The GTO however, does not suppress your power only at the edge of damage. Through training with quick, explosive exercises, plyometrics gives us the ability to force out more power more rapidly, before the inhibition reflex occurs.^[1]

The intent of plyometrics is to train your muscles to release more power more rapidly from the muscle that you have, with the goal of generating as much power as possible before the inhibition reflex occurs. To achieve this, plyometrics is based on quick, explosive exercises, which focus on generating immediate force and developing your fast-twitch muscle fibers. In addition to training explosive burst techniques and exercises, an important part of developing fast-twitch muscle is exhausting slow-twitch muscles in other, more extended stamina-oriented workouts, at which point fast-twitch muscle fibers take over and begin to develop.

Plyometrics are wonderful, but muscle is still the source of that strength, so we still need some. There is a difference between how much muscle you have and how strong that muscle is. Both are equally important, and both are trained differently. Muscle growth, or hypertrophy, is best trained through pushing muscles to the point of exhaustion through high reps and consecutive workouts for the same muscle groups. Strength, on the other hand, is developed with lower reps of more weight and reasonable rest time in between.

9 Lightning Speed

You’re probably thinking, “Sure, there are some fast people out there, but there’s a difference between being really fast and ‘superhuman speed.’ ” However, anyone lucky enough to have had the illustrious pleasure of working with the late, great Bruce Lee would likely beg to differ. In order for Lee’s movements to be reasonably visible on film, they had to be slowed down two-fold. First, he would intentionally move slower so that the camera could capture his movements, and then afterward, the film would be slowed so that the eyes of the viewer could follow what was happening. If these measures weren’t taken, it would appear that the villains surrounding him would simply fall over for no reason without any visible cause.^[2] If speed beyond the comprehension of the human eye isn’t fast enough in your opinion to be considered superhuman, then you’re certainly a tough one to impress.

Fighting fast is one thing, but if we’re going to talk about real super speed, we need to take running and other types of movement into account as well. Luckily, this traces back to the same core concept, which is fast-twitch muscle fiber. This is the same fast-twitch muscle fiber discussed in the previous installment regarding super strength and is trained largely with the same type of concepts: plyometrics and explosiveness, as well as focusing these types of training on the muscle groups necessary for the abilities you want to achieve.

Fast movement, however, is not the only element of lightning speed. In order to be capable of utilizing this speed effectively, one must also have super reaction time. Without this, all the speed in the world is meaningless. The best way to train reaction time is through reaction-oriented activities, such as the hand-slap game and speed bag training, as well as through visual athletic training, such as robo-pong, focus loop, and brock string exercises.

8 Incredible Agility

So far, we’ve explored a few powers that will help you knock around the baddies. To do so, you’ll need to get there in time to save . . . whoever it is you’re saving. Super speed will help you with that, but you’ll need to round it out with the super agility to get past obstacles that most people can’t, and quick!

Parkour is just what you need. As stated by founder David Belle: “Parkour is a method of training which allows us to overcome obstacles, both in the urban and natural environments.” Likely the most notable paths for parkour users (traceurs) is across rooftops, as shown in the Rush Hour BBC promo, which was the introduction of parkour to the mainstream.^[3] Being agile enough to climb and jump and run across daunting obstacles may not sound like much of a superpower, but just watch any of the wealth of homemade parkour videos out there, and you’ll be shocked by the incredible things already being done by many across the world!

Founded in 1990, parkour is a relatively new concept but has taken the world by storm and has many training schools around the world. This is important because parkour, when not learned under professional guidance, can be extremely dangerous for obvious reasons (including falling from the rooftops you’re jumping across).

7 Extreme Flexibility

Extreme flexibility is one of the most well-known of all real superpowers. Contortionists have been a staple of the performance world since as far back as ancient Egypt and possibly beyond. A master of this art is Daniel Browning Smith, also known as “Rubberboy.” Recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s most flexible man, he is known for squeezing himself through unstrung tennis rackets, rotating his torso 180 degrees, bending in half backwards from a laying position, and, of course, squeezing into tiny boxes, not to mention all of the other skills commonly associated with the art.

Jujutsu and its cousins, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and judo, as well as other forms of technical grappling are highly effective and popular martial arts. These styles of ground combatives utilize submission, choking, limb-breaking, and various other types of grappling techniques, and flexibility is essential. Flexibility also increases the quality of many striking techniques, and that’s not just for flashy moves and high kicks. Speed and range of motion in power-generating body parts, like the hips, lead to more powerful strikes.

Healing and recovery are also dramatically increased with superior flexibility, as it decreases stress on joints and reduces pain, making us more resilient and getting us back into action more quickly after a particularly strenuous battle or damaging injury.

Training flexibility is largely based on engaging in all types of stretching regularly and frequently. Dynamic stretching involves gradually increasing reach, movement speed, or both, when moving parts of your body. Ballistic stretching is less controlled and relies on using momentum to push a body part beyond its usual range. Static stretching involves holding a muscle stretched at its farthest point and has two subtypes: static-passive, which is holding the stretched muscle with some external force, and static-active, which means using only the muscles to hold the stretch. Another type, isometric stretching, involves tensing of the stretched muscles, such as if a partner is holding your leg high while you try to push it down. (This is but one of many examples of isometric stretching.)

All types of stretching are necessary for extreme flexibility, but isometric stretching is the best for developing strength and range of motion for athletics and contortion, so using it as a primary focus in your training is key for this kind of ability.^[4]

6 Ultra Fortitude

For a truly superhuman body, fortitude and toughness are of primary importance, as superheroes are faced with constant threat to their bodies. Methods of body conditioning have been used for many years in the world of martial arts, one of the most common concepts being bone mineralization, also called calcification. Bones are primarily comprised of calcium, and the amount and density of calcium in those bones determines their size and structural strength. Resistance training in one’s workout routine is a simple and safe way to achieve mineralization. It is even suggested to help the elderly maintain their health.^[5]

When the body detects that its bones are absorbing large amounts of force, a natural mechanism sends more calcium into the bones, increasing their size, density, and weight, thus adding to the structural integrity of their owner’s body and, in some ways, even striking power. This concept is called Wolff’s law. Many types of martial artists through history have utilized this concept by striking objects repeatedly to cause a calcifying reaction in the bones, including the legendary Shaolin monks.

Davis’s law is a concept similar to Wolff’s law, the difference being that where Wolff’s law concerns bones, Davis’s law concerns soft tissue. The body’s capacity to respond to stress is not limited to bones, and the soft tissues of the body can be trained to harden through stress as well, resulting in more resilient muscles and organs, as well as a boost to pain resistance, which is important, as well.

Having a body that can structurally survive as much punishment as possible is great, but how much pain and suffering the hero can endure before giving in to a villain or extraordinarily arduous task is another thing and also extremely important. Pain has two primary concepts behind it: threshold and tolerance. Threshold represents how much stimulus is required for something to feel “painful,” and tolerance represents how much of that pain one can physically and psychologically endure. Unfortunately, there seems to be no way of increasing one’s pain threshold, but tolerance can be trained, and to a remarkable degree.

A good place to look for this is once again is to the Shaolin. These incredible warrior monks perform superhuman feats of pain regulation, such as lying on spears and having large stones smashed on their stomachs. How do they do it? Meditation. By controlling their minds, the Shaolin can actually distract themselves from and even reduce pain, making it nearly, if not totally, irrelevant. If that’s not superhuman pain resistance, than what is?

5 Surviving Extreme Temperatures

In 2007, Wim Hof set a world record when he immersed himself in ice for 72 minutes in nothing but shorts and boots, and this isn’t even his most incredible feat. He has also climbed Mount Everest, again, in nothing but shorts and boots (he was only stopped from reaching the summit by a foot injury), and run a marathon in the desert without water.

Wim Hof, or “The Iceman,” as he is known, manages such things with a heightened connection to and control of his body. This may sound like something that is likely a trick or hoax, but Hof has always done his work under scrutiny by scientists and journalists, all of whom verify his claims.^[6] Though he has been observed by the scientific community closely enough to prove his legitimacy, exactly how his methods work remains a mystery to science.

So how is it possible to train something that can’t be identified? And how is it that we can be sure that Wim Hof isn’t a one-off freak of nature? Because he teaches people. That’s right, you can take lessons from the man directly, and even if traveling to Europe to train with the man is too much, there are training videos on his website!

4 Enhanced Immunity

Another accomplishment of the Wim Hof method is increasing your immunity! This was proven when Wim Hof was documented resisting that symptoms of an endotoxin introduced in a medical laboratory. The scientists were astonished by what they witnessed but doubted that anyone else could replicate Hof’s feat. To test this, 12 students of Hof’s were brought in, and all of them resisted the toxin, just like Hof!

The Wim Hof method may be incredibly impressive, but it’s not a cure-all, and as dangerous as it may be, for many potential contaminants, the only way to protect ourselves is to expose ourselves. Tolerance to poisons and other toxins is most commonly achieved by consuming or injecting a very small, survivable amount into one’s body at a steadily increasing rate as the body’s natural defensive reactions continuously toughen the body’s immunity to said toxin. This term for this is “mithridatism.”^[7]

Vaccines are a similar concept, created as “imitations” of a disease that cause no illness and are intended to provoke a response from the immune system, which then produces antibodies and T-lymphocytes which protect us against the illness in question.

3 Apnea Diving

Apnea diving, or freediving, is so popular and well-known that it is not only a superhuman ability but also a sport! AIDA International Freediving is a democratic, international organization that sets rules and regulations for safety in the sport, in addition to maintaining world records and organizing events all over the planet. Although scientists believed for years that humans could only survive underwater for a few minutes tops and at depths no deeper than 50 meters (164 ft), some of the world records in this sport include dives to depths well over 200 meters (656 ft), with some lasting over 11 minutes on a single breath!^[8]

This is possible because of an evolutionary adaptation called the “diving reflex.” The action of this reflex is to shut down and/or slow physiological functions that use oxygen, thus allowing our bodies to operate on less oxygen for a longer period of time. Blood shift is another phenomenon also necessary in freediving. This function allows the lungs to fill with plasma, preventing their collapse from pressure.

Though recognized as a sport worldwide, freediving is still extremely dangerous to the ill-prepared. Improper preparation and faulty or mismanaged equipment have caused numerous deaths in the sport. Because of this, it is important to seek proper instruction.

2 Echolocation

Many have heard about how some blind people can use echolocation to navigate their surroundings, but a 2013 study from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich biologists shows that sighted people can learn this skill, as well! It turns out that the ability to echolocate is a talent that lies dormant within everyone. This is because our brains have learned to shut out echoes so that we can focus more effectively on the primary source of a sound, rather than having the constant distraction of echoes of everything around us. The trick to learning echolocation is to learn to “tune in” to the echoes that already exist in the world.

The LMU experiment consisted of sighted people outfitted with a headset that contained earphones and a microphone. The participants made a vocalization, and the appropriate echo in relation to objects and spaces in the room was created through the earphones. This test allowed sighted people, over a few weeks of training, to learn to extrapolate information regarding shape, size, and distance from the given echo.^[9]

1 Mind Control

Controlling others like puppets may not be realistic, but implanting thoughts and altering the way people think very much is. The human subconscious is frighteningly vulnerable, and controlling minds through planted suggestion is more accessible a skill than many would presume. This is why the reader should learn about this, not only to use if need be but also to defend against it should one come across a user of these techniques.

The essential element of this process is to go after the subconscious mind while the conscious mind is otherwise focused, and here are the five most common techniques: Covert hypnosis entails convincing someone that your thoughts are their own through suggestive, focused conversation. When one engages in pattern interruption, they create a brief hypnotic moment by forcing someone’s concentration through an abnormal behavior (such as placing a hand on someone’s chest in place of shaking their hand in a greeting—the moment it takes them to analyze the situation will cause a brief hypnotic state). The Zeingarnik effect is concentration that naturally occurs in people toward incomplete tasks. This can be achieved by telling someone an incomplete story, otherwise causing them to focus on an incomplete task. During this period of distracted focus, they are highly suggestible. Another method is to use ambiguous phrases or comments that require someone’s focus to analyze, causing a brief period of high suggestibility. Finally, there are hypnotic keywords, subconscious-evoking phrases like “imagine if . . . ” that can cause a rise in accessibility to someone’s subconscious. This technique is a bit vague and weaker but still very commonly used.

Controlling others is not, however, the only use of these skills. One of the most important uses—and the reason this item was saved for last on the list—is that these tricks can be used to help develop ourselves. The reader may be overwhelmed by the sheer apparent degree of effort needed to attain the things listed here, but by getting control of oneself using techniques such as self-hypnosis, it is remarkable what challenges the average person can overcome and what accomplishments they are able to achieve.

Using mind control on yourself is largely made up of neurolinguitsic programming (NLP), which in this context, is largely made up of two techniques: The flash technique is an NLP exercise in which one visualizes an image associated with a negative feeling in a given circumstance brightly and vividly. The person then implants in that imagined image another, much smaller gray scale image of their preferred feeling in that circumstance. Gradually, the preferred imagine grows to take over the negative image, with the color draining from the negative image to the preferred image. This process is repeated over and over until psychologically successful. Anchoring is associating an internal response with an external or internal stimulus in order to reaccess the internal response (similar to how seeing something nostalgic will remind you of how you felt when you first saw it). This effect can be manually created by choosing a simple, self-creatable stimulus—such as making a hand gesture or touching yourself in a certain way and repeating that action when you want to associate the anchored feeling to a given task at hand.^[10]

Though only a few techniques in each category have been listed here, there are actually a great number of others that can be used to achieve the same forms of control.

So there you have it: ten learnable superpowers ripe for practice. Clearly, in the brevity of this listicle, the complete process of learning such wondrous things is not expressible, but all of the items are out there and ready to be trained. All that’s left now is to reach out, grab for destiny, and, of course, always use your powers for good.

Excelsior!

Jason Karras writes, therefore he is.

We’ve probably all met at least one person in our lives who has a really good memory, is really good at doing math in their head, or something along those lines. Most of the time we just assume this person is some kind of genius, or perhaps a savant, and we think it’s beyond us. However, for those of you who wish that you could have some of those abilities, the good news is that you actually don’t need to be a prodigy to learn them. There are many mental superpowers that anyone can learn, as long as they are willing to put in the time to practice.

10. Want A Cool Party Trick? Learning To Speed Solve A Rubik’s Cube Is Entry Level

Everyone knows the Rubik’s cube, and most people have at least idly picked one up, solved one side, and then gave up when they realized they would have to destroy their work to fix another side. A lot of people have never bothered to go much further past this, but many wish they could complete one, at least to say that they finally did.

For those of you who feel that solving a Rubik’s cube is out of reach, and that trying to solve one as a speed-cuber is even more out of reach, the nice thing is it actually isn’t really that hard. If you can solve one side, you can get the rest done, as long as you follow the right movement patterns. You see, there is a simple pattern of movement that will change other parts of the cube, but leave the parts you didn’t want changed as they are as you finish with the movement pattern. As for how hard it is to be a speed-cuber, a nine-year-old in China named Yihang Wang has done it in under five seconds with decent consistency, so you can learn how to do it in a few minutes if you really practice and set your mind to it. 

9.  Training Yourself To Have An Incredible Memory Is Easier Than It Sounds

Some people see someone with a really good memory, and they’re shocked by that person’s genetic luck, and how they just “have” a good memory. This all goes back to so many people thinking that talent is something you just have, and not something that is mostly a learned ability. However, the truth is that true photographic, or eidetic, memories are considered a myth by most researchers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have a great memory. The trick is, you actually need to train and discipline your mind properly to do it.

Now, while there are a ton of mnemonic techniques that can help you which we don’t have room for here, the main concept is just understanding how your memory works. Memory actually has addresses in your brain that trigger it, based on the context when you memorized whatever it was. This can make it hard to remember things, as we have to recall what else was going on at the time, but if we can train ourselves to use triggers that make more sense, we can control our memory much better.

Furthermore, if you use something called chunking, you can actually increase your working memory as well. Short term memory can hold up to nine chunks of information at a time, but if you take items and put them into categories, you can expand this capacity.

8. Learning To Count Cards Is Both Easy And Potentially Profitable

In movies like The Hangover, we see a character using crazy math calculations in order to count cards and get our main cast all the money they need to hopefully escape a sticky situation. The technique is made to look almost impossibly inaccessible to anyone who isn’t some kind of crazy genius at mathematics, and the drama is tuned up to the highest degree. However, the truth is it isn’t actually that hard to learn to count cards.

It does require discipline and practice, just like anything that you want to learn properly, and you will probably want to practice memory techniques as well to make sure you don’t make errors under pressure. However, it doesn’t require complex math. In fact, all it really requires is arithmetic, which is something most of us should have mastered long ago. As for whether it is legal, what happened in The Hangover was illegal as it was a conspiracy involving several people. However, if you are working alone without electronic help, you can count cards all day and all they can do is kick you out and tell you not to come back. 

7. Learning Human And Animal Body Language Is Like Teaching Yourself An Extra Sense

Most of us know a decent amount of human body language just from being, well, human. But there are many things we don’t know about the science involved, and if we teach ourselves to learn these tricks, it can feel like opening up an entirely new sense. This can be especially helpful with pets, who speak an entirely different language than we do.

Dog body language is mostly well known, but a lot of people don’t quite know cats so well, as studies on them haven’t been as common until more recently. What we do know makes it relatively easy to understand them though, and can open up new understanding between you and your cat. The most important thing is to watch their tail movements, which indicate most of their mood. A raised tail, for example, indicates interest and openness, but a thrashing tail means your cat is really, really angry and frustrated.

As for people, one trick many don’t know about is that by watching which way their eyes are moving, you can often tell if they are telling the truth or not. The trick is that when remembering things, people typically look left, and when thinking of something new, they probably look right and upward. If they are looking right and downward however, it could indicate they doubt their own words. 

6. Learn Classical Logic And Apply it To Your Everyday Thinking

A lot of us tend to think of ourselves as pretty logical, for the most part, and we like to believe that we are already applying logic most of the time to our everyday lives. However, while it is true most people are at least trying to be logical most of the time, that doesn’t mean they always are, or that they couldn’t be more logically sound if they took the time to learn classical logic. Now, the reason a lot of people don’t think too highly of it is that at its most basic level it can seem almost absurdly reductive, but that’s kind of the point.

The idea behind classical logic is to break things down into simple statements, like, “If I eat until I feel full, I ate enough; if I eat after I feel full, I ate too much.” It also breaks everything down into simple true, false, or both statements. This is actually really easy enough to learn, even if the more complicated version involves algebra. If you do teach yourself to start applying classical logic to everyday life, you can impress people with your complex problem solving skills. Also, by  forcing yourself to look at things logically, it will be much harder for the news to emotionally manipulate you as well.

5. Learning To Read Lips Is Useful, But It Can Be Misinterpreted

You’ve probably never thought too much about learning to read lips. Most people don’t. This is usually because we tend to think of it as a skill that’s something you only learn if you’re hard of hearing. It helps you figure out what people are saying when your ears are not working properly, and allows the person to better understand a conversation without needing the other person to know sign language. However, it can be useful for more than just people who are deaf, as sometimes when looking right at someone we might miss a word or two due to sound, and not want them to repeat themselves, or we might be trying to pick up part of a conversation from across the room.

Now, while anyone can read lips, it is important to know that reading lips should be largely based on context and not just what you thought you read. You should also be careful not to take action simply from what you thought you read from their lips. The reason for this is that a lot of words or phrases will make the same exact movement as other words or phrases, and context is not always enough to entirely make up for this.

4. Learning Just The Fundamentals Of A Wide Variety Of Subjects Has Multiple Advantages

It can be easy to get frustrated during your early years in college. You might be annoyed at having to take a bunch of general education courses that don’t seem to fit your major. This is a very common complaint, but the colleges stand firm, claiming that it is important for you to learn all of those things. Some people think it’s a conspiracy from the colleges to get you to spend more money going to unnecessary classes, but there is actually a good reason for all of this.

The thing is, while specializing is great, that doesn’t mean that you get to reach the skill of a specialist just by specialization alone. Most subjects have a lot of interconnected things that might not necessarily be a direct part of your major study, and making all these connections as you learn will help increase your understanding of your field. It will also make you a more well-rounded person capable of impressing people by at least understanding the basics of a lot more subjects. Finally, it will also help you with employers, who are looking for people with a more diverse skill set, and can help land you jobs in interconnected fields.

3. Even Sighted People Can Benefit From Learning How To Use Echolocation

Echolocation is something a lot of people think is just a skill that is unique to heroes like Daredevil, who are not at all real (well, as far as we know…). Now, while it is true that you are unlikely to ever learn to be able to use echolocation to the level that Daredevil can in the comics,  you can learn to use it to great effect, even if you can see just fine.

Some of you are probably wondering what the point of this is if you can already see, but echolocation is basically using your brain to create a sonar map. Anytime something is blocking your vision, you can use echolocation to get a better visual map of what might be behind the things that are obstructing your view. Some may think that only blind people can learn this, but the fact is that blind people actually don’t have extra hearing, and some studies have shown sighted people picking it up easier than blind people.

2. Train Yourself Not Just To See Or Hear, But To Observe

This all goes back to the basic principles of Sherlock-ian deduction, which can be best illustrated by a conservation Holmes once had with Dr. Watson where he  asks the good doctor if he knows how many steps lead up to their flat at 221b Baker Street. Watson cannot answer, and Holmes replies, “You see Watson, but you do not observe.” This fundamental principle is the basis of all of Sherlock’s deductions, as he has trained himself to actively observe everything around him, as opposed to just seeing it like most of us do.

Now, some may think this is splitting hairs, or just something you need if you are a detective, but there is a good reason for normal people to train their brains to think like this. There is something called situational blindness where we can see something daily, and be so used to the general schematic of it, that we don’t notice small changes. These changes could even cause you to have an accident in the wrong situation, so it’s good to actively keep your eye on things. Furthermore, by applying this skill to observing people, you will get a better handle on subtle mood shifts that you might have missed in your friends and workers.

1. You Can Become A Human Calculator By Learning Some Simple Tricks

Let’s start off by being clear that while everyone can learn it, there is a good reason this one is number one on the list. It’s easily the most impressive skill to learn, but it’s also going to require the most practice of any of them to really get down. That being said, for those who think this is a skill beyond them because it requires advanced math aptitude or skills, you can rest easy knowing that really isn’t the case. You may have seen people at the county fair or somewhere similar managing complex multiplication faster than you would be able to enter it into your calculator, and thought they were a real-life Will Hunting. However, they are using simple tricks and not advanced math. 

The first trick is knowing the basics of arithmetic really well, and understanding how to round up or down and simplify things by breaking them into chunks. If you know the basic principles, you just need to memorize most of the square roots, and then learn a simple formula you can use as a shortcut for advanced multiplication. If you understand that ((A Squared) – (B Squared)) = ((A + B) * (A – B)), how to plug in the right numbers, and you know your square roots, you too can be a math magician.

10. Supertaster

This superpower should be pretty self-explanatory: it’s a heightened sense of taste. The reason some people taste flavors stronger is simply because they have more taste buds. These extra taste buds make them sensitive to flavor, and as a result, they have strong likes or dislikes for certain foods like broccoli, cabbage, spinach, coffee, and grapefruit.

About 25 percent of people in the world are supertasters, while 50 percent are medium tasters and at the complete opposite end of the spectrum are non-tasters, who think everything tastes a little bland, and who make up 25 percent of the population. Women are more likely to be supertasters and people from Asia, Africa, and South America also have a higher chance of being supertasters.

You can test to see if you’re a supertaster by placing a drop of blue food coloring on the tip of your tongue. Rinse your mouth out and make sure it’s dry. Then, place a wax ring or binder enforcer ring on the blue dot and count how many papillae, which are the bumps on your tongue, are inside the ring. If you have more than 30, then you are probably a supertaster.

9. Golden Blood

Nicknamed the “Golden Blood”, Rh-null is one of the rarest and most precious blood types on earth. It is so rare that in 50 years, only 43 people have been found to have this blood type.

How blood types work is that on every red blood cell, there are up to 342 antigens, which are molecules that are capable of triggering the production of antibodies. How people’s blood types are determined is through the absences and presences of those antigens. Then, there are 35 different types of blood systems, and a majority of those blood systems encompass the 342 antigens. For example, ABO is the most common blood system and it’s where you find the most common blood types like A+, B-, O+, and so on. Rh is a different system from ABO and almost all Rh blood types are made up from 61 antigens. How Rh-null is different from other Rh blood types is that Rh-null does not contain any of the 61 antigens, which, until 50 years ago, scientists thought was impossible. Before the blood type was discovered in a living person in the early 1960s, fetuses with the blood type were aborted because doctors did not think the baby would survive.

Now that they have realized that people can live with that blood type, it has become incredibly valuable for a number of reasons. First is that since it’s a negative blood type, it’s a universal donor for all people with Rh blood. But the blood is only used for transfusions in emergencies because the blood is so rare and incredibly valuable to scientists and researchers, so they are reluctant to give it up. In fact, currently there are only nine active Rh-null donors in the whole world. Some researchers have even gone so far as to track down donors and personally approach them, asking for some of their blood.

8. Super Vision

Tetrachromacy is an incredibly rare variation in a gene that allows women to see colors that are invisible to most people. How most people see color is that light enters the eye and goes through three cones. Some animals, like certain birds, reptiles, insects, and fish, have four cones and that fourth one extends the color perception into the UV range. Over time, mammals have evolved away from using this fourth cone, but a very small group of people apparently has a genetic variation where they utilize that fourth cone.

The reason only women can have Tetrachromacy is because, in order to have it, someone needs two gene variations and the variation only appears on the X-chromosome. Since males have an XY-chromosome set, it is impossible for them to have two gene variations. On the flip side of it, this is why many males do not see colors the same way as women and why men are more likely to be colorblind.

As for how much it affects someone’s vision, if you look at the picture above, it was painted by a woman who has Tetrachromacy and it should give you some idea as to how she sees the world compared to the way nearly everybody else does.

7. Rubber Skin and Joints

Ehlers Danlos syndrome is actually a group of disorders that are inherited. The syndrome causes people to have rapid growth spurts, and they can continue to grow into adulthood. It also gives them stretchy skin and incredible flexibility, especially in smaller joints. The reason they are more flexible is because the connective tissue is looser and they can dislocate bones near painlessly.

While being more flexible and having rubbery skin may sound like a good thing, there are a lot of downsides to the syndrome. If they get cut and need stitches, the stitches may not hold because of the elasticity of the skin leaving them with horrible scars. Also, since the joints never really settle, it can lead to early onset arthritis. Not to mention awful growing pains from rapid growth spurts.

One fan theory believes that there actually is a comic book character that has Ehlers Danlos syndrome and that is Batman’s arch nemesis, the Joker.

6. Echolocation

This ability, which, of course, is the same one that Daredevil uses, is utilized by a number of blind and visually impaired people to help them “see” the world. What is interesting about this one is that it is not an innate power, but some people have the ability to learn how to do it.

Commonly, people use echolocation by clicking their tongues and through training, they can pick up subtle audio clues of where objects are. So while they don’t visualize the world quite the way that Daredevil does, some people are so good at it that they can tell what objects their sound is bouncing off of.

Some notable cases include Daniel Kish, who was blind since he was a baby. He can ride a bike, climb mountains, and live in the wilderness alone, all because of his echolocation skills. Or there is Ben Underwood, who had his eyes removed due to cancer when he was three. He learned how to do all the things normal teenagers do like play video games, foosball, basketball, football and he was fearless on his rollerblades. Sadly, Ben passed away from the same cancer that claimed his eyes on January 19, 2009 at the age of 16.

5. Never Age

Staying young for your entire life may seem like one of the better superpowers, especially if you compare it with the ailments of growing old. In reality though, the mysterious syndrome, known as Syndrome X, is actually more of a curse than a superpower. That is because the aging process doesn’t stop when you’re in your prime, like your 20s. Instead, some people stay children for their whole life, like Brooke Greenberg, who was the size and had the mental capacity of a toddler for her entire 20-year life. Or there is Gabby Williams of Billings, Montana who is 10, but still looks and acts like a toddler. Finally, there is Nicky Freeman, who lives in Australia. He grows one year every four years, meaning that while he is 45 now, he is trapped in the body of an 11-year-old.

While this syndrome has to be an incredible hardship on the families of the inflicted, these people may help unlock the solution to stopping the aging process once people get into adulthood. And unlocking this secret may not guarantee we would live forever, it will at least give us the option of living for a long time and still leaving a beautiful corpse behind.

4. Immunity to Pain

A big benefit when it comes to fighting crime is not being able to feel pain. After all, that is the power that Kick-Ass utilizes to fight crime. While he had nerve damage, there is an actual syndrome where people don’t feel pain called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (CIPA). The rare genetic condition affects the development of small nerve fibers that send sensations of pain and hot and cold to the brain. Meaning in addition to not feeling pain, they also aren’t affected by extreme heat or coldness.

While not being able to feel pain sounds like a good thing, it is actually a pretty dangerous syndrome. Just because someone doesn’t feel pain, it doesn’t mean they are immune to injuries. For example, when babies with the syndrome are teething, they can chew until their gums bleed and when their teeth come in, they can bite through their tongue and not notice. As they get older, they can easily burn or cut themselves and not realize they did it and this can lead to infections.

Meaning that while they feel less pain, they actually have to be more careful because they could seriously injure themselves and not realize that anything is wrong.

3. Unbreakable Bones

Thanks to a very rare genetic mutation called LRP5, a small group of people have nearly unbreakable bones due to an incredibly high bone density. This oddity was first noted in 1994, after an unnamed man was involved in a bad car accident. He was uninjured, but just to be safe, they X-rayed him and found out that his bone density was eight times higher than the average man of the same age. Sometime later, doctors came across a family and each family member had a very high bone density, along with very square jaws and they sank when they tried to swim. After finding the family, doctors traced their family’s lineage and they were able to link the family to the man in the car accident. Then they found other people from the family tree with the same mutation, like a man living in Alabama who had problems getting a hip replacement because his bones were too dense to put screws into the bone.

To movie fans, this condition may sound familiar because it appears to be the same condition that Bruce Willis’ character had in M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable.

2. Super Strength

Myostatin-Related Muscle Hypertrophy is an incredibly rare condition and there are only a few documented cases, but it is essentially super strength. How it works is there is a protein in the body called myostatin and it affects muscle growth. If the body produces a lot of myostatin, then it is harder for the body to grow muscle, where if someone has low myostatin, then they can develop muscles easier and they are less likely to retain fat.

Currently, there are two known cases in the world. One is Liam Hoekstra, who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. By the time he was five months old, he was able to do the iron cross, which is a gymnastic exercise. When he was 8 months old, he could do pull ups and by the time he was 19 months, he could hang upside down by his feet and do inverted crunches. The other certified case is an unnamed German boy who is apparently even stronger than Liam.

1. Immunity to Disease

Did you know there are some people who are immune to deadly diseases? It’s true and it is all thanks to them being mutants. Just to name a few, there are people who have a rare genetic mutation that keeps them immune from HIV. Another example is that a small group of Amish people have an ultra-low chance of getting heart disease. Or there is the case of the people of Quito, Ecuador. In the town, there is a cluster of people with a unique type of dwarfism that also keeps them immune from cancer.

This is actually one of the more interesting superpowers because if you have it, then you may be responsible for literally saving countless peoples’ lives. The Resilience Project is looking for people who should have gotten sick, but didn’t, to donate DNA. The donors will be anonymously scanned for the 685 genes that cause 127 different diseases. They believe that these people may hold the clues to better treatment and quite possibly curing mankind’s deadliest inflictions.

Using available box office numbers, superhero film franchises have generated well over $40 billion to date, which is a fairly decent indicator that people are really into superheroes. But if you’re feeling a little burned out on the whole thing, worry not. Nature itself offers up some unbelievable alternatives to the MCU. In a way, it almost makes sense – why shouldn’t the non-human creatures of the world have superhuman abilities?

10. Ballooning Spiders Can Fly 

One of the most basic yet revered superhero abilities is flight. Mankind has long envied the birds of the sky and their perceived freedom, so it’s no wonder that superheroes who can fly are a dime a dozen these days. There’s something fascinating about flight being mastered by a life form that has no business flying. Take spiders, for instance.

Some species of spider engage in a behavior called ballooning. They turn their butts skyward and release strands of web into the great wide open. The webbing lifts the spider and carries it away. They can even travel across oceans doing this. That alone is impressive, but it’s worth looking at a little more closely.

You might assume after reading this that the spiders are lifted up by the wind. That’s what scientists used to think, too. But spiders can hardly rely on the fickle nature of a breeze, can they? Ballooning doesn’t need the wind at all, though that’s obviously a possibility as well. But even on a calm day, the strands of silk they release are able to lift them up thanks to the Earth’s electric field.

Turns out the spiders are very finely tuned to electrical fields. The hairs on their bodies can actually feel changes in electrical fields and when conditions are right, they can release strands of silk, allowing the repulsion on a charged thread to take them up, up and away. 

9. Dolphins Can Shut Off Half of Their Own Brains

The world’s oceans still hold many mysteries and even the things we know about are pretty amazing. Look at the humble dolphin. It’s one of the most intelligent animals in the world and has been shown to do some amazing things from helping humans hunting fish to rescuing people from sharks. But have you ever stopped to wonder how a dolphin manages something as simple as sleeping?

Dolphins, like all mammals, need to breathe air. So how do you do that when you fall asleep in the middle of the ocean? If you’re a dolphin, you do it by fractions. They have the ability to shut down the hemispheres of their brains separately. That means the left half of their brain can be snoozing while the right half is awake and making sure they don’t drown or get eaten. 

This allows them to keep swimming slowly while they’re asleep, with one eye open, and remain alert in a very basic way. This is also important for mothers with babies as a baby can’t stop swimming or it will sink. The mom keeps swimming and pulling the baby along in her slipstream. 

Dolphins breathe consciously, unlike humans for whom breathing happens automatically. That’s why we don’t suffocate in our sleep. But a dolphin must always remain at least partially conscious to control this action. 

8. Hummingbirds Burn 6 Times as Many Calories a Day as a Human and Can Fly 500 Miles Nonstop

You may not think a hummingbird is any kind of force of nature, but the truth is, pound for pound, a hummingbird shames even the world’s greatest athletes in terms of physical ability and stamina. 

Even though they only weigh a few ounces, these birds are little machines when it comes to what they do in a day. The average hummingbird can burn anywhere from 6,000 to 12,000 calories in one day.  The average man burns around 2,000 calories per day. An Olympic athlete might burn 4,500. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson consumes over 5,000 calories per day to maintain his physique, meaning you could make an argument that the Rock is about half a hummingbird. 

What can a hummingbird do with all those calories? The ruby-throated hummingbird needs to migrate every year, and it chooses to do so by flying across the Gulf of Mexico. In one extended flight over open water, the bird will fly for nearly an entire day across 500 miles of ocean. The little guys need to bulk up before the flight and will lose half their entire body mass on the journey. 

7. Birds Can Repair Their Hearing 

About 13% of people in the US suffer hearing loss in one or both ears. That works out to around 30 million people. So finding a way to potentially fix that issue and restore hearing is a big industry. The answer may come from nature as it turns out birds can’t go permanently deaf. The reason is that their ears are able to repair themselves after damage. 

If the hair-like cells that transmit vibrations to your brain to be interpreted as sound are damaged, that’s it. You can permanently lose hearing if they are all destroyed. But birds, as well as some reptiles and amphibians, just grow new cells when they get damaged. Unlocking the science of that could lead to a treatment for what had once been permanent hearing loss in humans. 

The science behind it is complex and there are many hurdles to overcome before it could potentially help humans, but it’s a path to travel nonetheless. In the meantime, just know that if you ever meet a deaf bird, it won’t be deaf for long. 

6. Beta Mandrills Physically Change to Become Alphas

Alphas in animal society are something most of us are passingly familiar with. An alpha is the “top” animal in a hierarchy, the boss as it were. We’ve adopted the term into human society in a way that’s generally negative. An alpha male is someone most people consider a bully. And there’s a lot more to the science of being alpha that just being the loudest or toughest.

Firstly, there’s no such thing as an alpha wolf. That doesn’t happen in nature, and our understanding of that happening in wolf society was based on observations of captive animals. But some species do have alphas and colorful mandrill baboons are among them.

The difference between an alpha male and a beta male is amazing and nowhere is it better observed than seeing what happens when a beta male defeats an alpha. A beta male goes through observable physical changes when alpha status is achieved. 

Just by winning a fight, the beta male achieves alpha status. This includes an increase in testosterone production. His testicles grow larger and the red sexual coloration on both their face and genitals increases to attract more female attention. 

5. Elysia Marginata, a Nudibranch, Can Cut its Own Head Off 

Most people aren’t likely to list the Elysia marginata as their favorite animal because who the hell even knows what that is? Well, it’s a kind of nudibranch, or sea slug, and this curious little beast has one heck of a superpower. Much like Deadpool, this creature can survive just about anything, and it’s willing to push itself to the limit when it needs to. For instance, it can and will decapitate itself. 

Scientists think the process may be a way to fix problems like parasites. The slug just removes its head from its own body and starts the process of growing an entirely new body off of the severed head. It will come back as good as new, complete with all the vital organs, and the slug can go on living. 

4. Lyrebirds Have the Ability to Mimic Almost Any Sound

Lyrebirds are some remarkable creatures that live in Australia. They have ostentatious tail feathers, live on the ground and blend in pretty well with their surroundings. But the remarkable thing about a lyrebird is its unparalleled ability to mimic almost anything it hears. It may imitate up to 20 different birds in a single song and it uses this to try to lure in a mate.

The lyrebird doesn’t limit itself to stealing tunes from other birds, however. Their keen ears take in every sound they run across in the wild. That has led to some remarkable videos of these birds not just imitating their feathered cousins but things like car alarms, camera shutters, and even chainsaws. The mimicry is uncanny and, in many cases, nearly indistinguishable from the original source. 

3. Cougars are Unprecedented Farmers

When you think of the ability to grow plants and have a green thumb on the scale of a character like Poison Ivy, you’re unlikely to stray into the animal kingdom at all since most animals seem like they wouldn’t even have an understanding of how seeds and planting work. And guess what? That’s true. But just because a cougar doesn’t know it’s an amazing farmer doesn’t make it untrue. 

Research shows that a large predator, like a cougar, can disperse tens of thousands of seeds across a massive spread of their territory. Around 5000 seeds per square kilometer are spread and fertilized by cougars and that second point explains how it’s done. Cougars are apex predators and their prey is generally herbivores. They eat animals that eat plants and seeds and those seeds pass undisturbed through their digestive tract. As they travel their territory, they will inadvertently plant as much as 94,000 new fruits and flowers and other kinds of plantlife to keep the whole cycle going year after year. 

2. F. Oxysporum Fungus Wears Golden Armor

There are plenty of organisms you could compare to Iron Man out in the world, from turtles to armadillos to clams, depending on how fast and loose you want to play with the concept. But do any of them have the flair of Tony Stark? One does. It’s called Fusarium oxysporum and what it lacks in the cool name department it makes up for in industrious behavior.

Fusarium is a fungus that mines for gold. Found in Australia, this pink fungus is able to detect gold molecules in the soil and dissolve them. As the fungus grows, it spreads out tiny, thread-like tendrils. These tendrils draw the gold in and become encrusted with the element during the process. Researchers also noted that the fungus which found the gold actually grew more than fungus that wasn’t able to do so. 

The process takes place in the soil and at a microscopic level, so it’s unlikely you’ll be seeing any golden mushrooms growing in the woods anytime soon. That said, if there was enough gold present, who knows? 

1. Newts Can Regenerate Almost Anything

Any superhero worth their salt has to be tough. They have to be able to get beaten on by the likes of Thanos or Stilt-Man. And they can’t all be super strong like the Hulk or nearly invulnerable like Superman. Sometimes things need to get a little gross and grisly, like they can in the life of a fire-bellied newt.

Many amphibians are known for their regenerative abilities. If they lose a toe or a tail, they can grow back. Fire-bellied newts are like that, but on a whole new, unbelievable level. In experiments, newts have been shown to regenerate their eyes 18 times in a row over a span of 16 years and each time the new eyes were as pristine as the originals. 

Newts are able to survive and regenerate from remarkable injuries that would kill most other life forms, like a damaged spinal cord. Hypoxia, the lack of oxygen in tissues that causes things like brain death, is overcome by some newts that can even generate new brain tissue to repair the organ afterward. Even damage to the heart can be overcome, with newts able to regenerate from damage to 10% and up to 20% of their heart tissue.