As much as I enjoyed my well-worn copies of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, the often-strained pseudoscientific explanations for superhuman abilities sure could sap the fun of out comics. For instance, the Hulk wasn't simply (!) a gamma-irradiated man who turned big, green and strong when he got angry -- if I remember correctly, his additional mass came from another dimension. In an amusing contrast, the "Powers & Abilities" section of a Handbook entry could go on for paragraphs, even pages, while in Who's Who in the DC Universe, it might only rate a sentence or two.

Stanford researcher Sebastian Alvarado manages to find a nice middle ground in a pair of videos exploring the science behind Captain America and the Incredible Hulk. There's no mention of other dimensions or unstable molecules here, but there are some big, and impressive-sounding words -- such us epigenetic modification, which Alvarado theorizes might be behind Bruce Banner's transformations.

He also may have an answer for why the Hulk is green. However, those purple pants are beyond even Alvarado's expertise.

(via The Verge)