"Black Panther" hit theaters this weekend, and people unfamiliar with the Marvel universe might have some questions about the fictional nation of Wakanda's technology. For instance, how does Black Panther's suit allow a regular human to become superhuman?
Black Panther's suit is made out of a material the comic's authors call vibranium. It's the same component that makes up Captain America's iconic shield.
Though we've never had a detailed explanation of how Black Panther's suit works, Kyle Hill of Nerdist's "Because Science," a YouTube science pop culture channel, speculates that the suit uses tiny molecular-sized vibranium springs to absorb and store kinetic energy.
If T'Challa, aka Black Panther, can then direct that stored energy at will, then... well, let's just say you would not want to be on the receiving end of that supercharged punch.