In Batman No. 2, the secretary of Gotham City’s evil mayor eavesdrops on her boss’s secret plans. When he finds out, he throws her out the window. There, lying in the frozen snow, something happens to her, and the female superhero emerges.
What happened on that freezing night? A DNA mutation, to which many superheroes owe their existence. DNA resembles the external, spiral staircases found in some apartment buildings. Each step consists of two pieces that fit together like two puzzle pieces. There are 4 different puzzle pieces in DNA, which are connected in a specific order. This order is extremely important, as it determines the unique characteristics of each species (hair color, eye color, etc.). If this sequence changes, many things can happen—even turning someone into a superhero out of the blue.
This is where “translation” comes into play. According to biologists, every three steps of the DNA “translate” into a small piece of protein. And so, bit by bit, a protein is synthesized. But if the order of the steps changes, you can see that the protein that’s made will be somewhat different. And that somewhat different protein can do somewhat different things in the body.
Thousands of random mutations in DNA, over thousands of years, were passed down to the descendants of each species. If their effects were beneficial to the organism in question, under the conditions in which it lived, then it survived and reproduced, passing on the altered genetic material to its descendants. This process continues, and “we live well, and superheroes live even better.”
