10 Incredible Kids With Real Life Superpowers
V/O Script: Patrick Hearn What if you were born with super powers?
While people aren't actually born with the ability to shoot lasers from their eyes (as
far as we know), some abilities aren't so far fetched.
People have been born with super strength, sight, and even hearing, as well as multiple
other abilities.
Check them out!
Super Sight -- Veronica Seider Way back in the dark ages of 1972, there lived
a woman who boasted the ability to see 20x better than the average human.
Her visual acuity allowed her to identify individuals from a mile away, and she also
claimed to be able to pick out individual pixels on a television set.
To be fair, the pixels back then were large, so that may not have been such a great task.
Did she really have those powers?
A lot of people seem to think so.
Perfect Recall -- Stephen Wiltshire Certain parts of the Autism spectrum lead
to incredible abilities, and Stephen Wiltshire has one of the best.
With just a glance, he can picture something in his mind and recreate it so thoroughly
that it could be a photograph.
After a brief helicopter ride over New York City, Stephen was able to recreate the entire
cityscape on a large piece of paper purely from memory.
Perfect Pitch - Derek Paravicini Derek was blinded so soon after birth that
it's unlikely he remembers what it is to see.
At the tender age of two, his nanny began taking him to piano lessons.
By the age of seven, he was performing concerts in London.
Derek possesses the ability to listen to a piece of music just one time and recreate
it perfectly on an instrument, particularly piano.
This ability, known as perfect pitch, is so incredibly rare that it's hard to make a proper
comparison for those who don't possess it.
It's believed that even with a lifetime of practice, the average person would be unable
to do what Derek can do.
Speed Reading -- Kim Peek While you may think of speed reading as a
way to get through textbooks more quickly, Kim Peek is a true speed reader.
He was able to read books much more quickly than a normal person, and in his later years,
the Times reported he had read more than 12,000 books.
Despite this massive volume, he could recall their contents with nearly 98% accuracy.
He suffered from a condition that resulted in fewer connections between the left and
right hemispheres of his brain; Kim could almost 'inhale' the information.
Although this ability was due to his medical condition, there are others born with similar
abilities -- the movie Rain Man was based on savants like Kim.
Super Flexibility -- Daniel Browning Smith Reed Richards may seem a bit far-stretched
(get it?), but there are some people with insane elasticity in their tendons and ligaments.
Daniel Browning Smith is one of them.
Known as "Rubberboy" to a lot of the world, Danie's contortionist abilities are hard to
believe.
He can bring his ankles behind his neck, twist himself into incredible knots, and more.
Daniel's abilities are due to a collagen disorder he was born with that makes him incredibly
flexible.
He could beat any of us at yoga without breaking a sweat.
Super Strength -- Liam Hoekstra At a very young age, Liam Hoekstra was diagnosed
with a disorder called muscular hypertrophy.
What this means is simple: he builds muscle and rarely puts on fat, no matter how much
he eats.
At five months, he performed a gymnastics maneuver called an iron cross -- considered
difficult by most who lack the strength for it.
Liam is stronger and faster than others his age.
Here's another effect: he will always be naturally ripped.
Feel the jealousy flow through you, literally everyone else.
Eidetic Memory -- Brad Williams Most of us remember particular, life-changing
events.
Brad Williams remembers everything.
He can tell you what the weather was like on this date one year ago, or recall what
his best friend had for dinner twelve years and sixteen days ago.
By the age of two, he could already read.
The condition is known as hyperthymesia, and is so rare that Brad is only one of a very
few people known to possess it.
Think of Ted from How I Met Your Mother; Brad Williams really could tell his children the
story of how he met their mother in excruciating detail.
Super Hearing -- Lidell Simpson Lidell Simpson was born deaf.
Lidell Simpson can also recognize people via his own version of 'sound.'
While experts are not entirely sure what constitutes his condition, Lidell has a form of advanced
synethesia that allows him to 'hear' actor's voices on television, even when the television
is muted.
He also speaks multiple languages and excels at sports like fencing.
Lidell's is the only known person with this ability, but that doesn't make his powers
any less impressive.
Electrical Control -- Slavisa Pajkic Slavisa Pajkic is no ordinary man.
He has the ability to withstand voltages as high as 20,000 volts, where 50 would be enough
to injure a normal person.
He can also channel electricity through his body long enough to heat a cup of water to
just below boiling.
Slavisa doesn't have sweat or salivary glands, which scientists believe allow him to channel
the electricity through himself without harm.
Night Vision -- Nong Yousui Nong Yousui is known for being 'cat-eyed.'
Born in Dahua, China, Nong has sky blue eyes, a strange color for someone of Chinese descent.
He is also rumored to have night vision, or the closest thing to it.
Researchers presented Nong with a questionairre to fill out while sitting in a pitch-black
room, and he completed it without difficulty.
Scientists believe that he may have a rod-rich iris, enabling him to absorb light more easily
than most.
However, they also state that no single mutation would lead to this ability; it's more likely
that Nong has a variety of mutations affecting his eyes which enable him to see in the dark.
What do you think of real life superpowers?
Are they the next step in human evolution, or are they, like Bigfoot, most likely hoaxes?
Like the video and let us know your thoughts!
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