I consider Superman to be my first superhero. Back in my childhood, I wasn’t an avid comic book reader, and I somehow missed all the live action and animated television series, so my introduction to superheroes was through movies. This was in the mid-1990s, before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, <a name=\'more\'></a>before the X-Men films, and before the Spider-Man films with Tobey Maguire (or The Amazing Spider-Man films with Andrew Garfield). Sure, there were Batman films, but those were relatively dark and gritty compared to the bright and gallant Superman films of the 1970s and 1980s. I never was a fan of villains and would always cheer for the “good guys.” And Superman was just so good– he was kind, selfless, and friendly. He had powers in super-strength, super-speed, and flight. But even though he was so powerful, nothing was ever too small of an issue for him to help. He rescued cats from trees, for goodness sakes.

Despite his seeming invincibility, Superman could still be vulnerable- especially in the presence of kryptonite.



Kryptonite is a fictional radioactive substance that comes from the remains of Krypton, Superman’s home planet. There are various types of kryptonite in comic book lore, but the most common and well known is green kryptonite, which weakens Superman and other Kryptonians. (Fun fact: kryptonite actually made its first appearance in a Superman radio series in the 1940s. Introducing kryptonite allowed the writers to temporarily sideline Superman so that the actor could take some time off.)






There are no canon scientific reason for how kryptonite works, but some people theorize that kryptonite weakens Superman by interfering with his ability to absorb solar radiation. Superman is basically solar powered- he converts energy from the sun into superpowers. If kryptonite radiation takes place of the stored energy or prevents Superman from charging up, he can’t function.

Usually kryptonite has no effect on humans, but in some versions it can cause damage after long-term exposure. For example, in one comic continuity Lex Luthor crafted a kryptonite ring to ward Superman off. His continued exposure to the radioactive kryptonite ring led to cancer, forcing him to amputate his hand.



Can we find kryptonite here on earth? Let’s break down the word “kryptonite.” The suffix “-ite” is often used in the names of chemical compounds (such as nitrite) or minerals (such as hematite). Krypton is an element. In 1898, Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers discovered krypton by boiling off components of liquid air, leaving krypton. Krypton is sometimes used in high-speed photographic flashes, lightbulbs, and luminous signs. Krypton is a noble gas and can be found in the last column of the periodic table with the other nob le gases. Under standard conditions, noble gases are colorless, odorless, and show low chemical reactivity. They don’t bond well with other atoms to form compounds. This is because the noble gases have just the right number of electrons to make them incredibly stable- they don’t need to bond with other atoms to share electrons. They are quite content on their own.






Of course, there are exceptions. Under certain conditions, krypton can react with fluorine to form krypton difluoride (KrF2), a colorless crystalline solid that slowly breaks down at room temperature. Theoretical chemists have come up with a way to create krypton oxide by combining krypton and oxygen under intense pressure- about 300 to 500 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level.

Neither krypton nor krypton compounds match the description of the solid green crystal kryptonite. But maybe kryptonite doesn’t actually contain krypton- after all, it gets its name from the planet Krypton, not necessarily the element krypton. Perhaps kryptonite contains a completely new elements we haven’t discovered yet, or maybe it’s made up of other elements. Torbernite and autunite are a radioactive green minerals found in uranium deposits. Diamonds can turn green after exposure to radiation. (Don’t worry- according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, these irradiated diamonds are surveyed and sold only after the radioactivity has decayed.) torbernite

In the 2006 film Superman Returns, Lex Luthor aims to create a massive new continent that would flood other land masses, forcing people to purchase land from him. He plans to create the land mass using Kryptonian crystal technology- the same technology that allowed Superman to build his Fortress of Solitude. As part of his plot, Lex Luthor steals a sample of kryptonite from the Metropolis Museum of Natural History. The placard for the kryptonite describes the substance as “sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide with fluorine.”



In 2007, a mineral from a Serbian mine was found to closely match the fictional kryptonite in Superman Returns. Dr. Chris Stanley, a mineralogist from the London Natural History Museum, determined that the mineral’s chemical formula was sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide. The real mineral was named jadarite after the Jadar area from which it came. There are a few differences between the fictional kryptonite and jadarite. One, jadarite does not contain fluorine, unlike the fictional kryptonite. Two, jadarite is white, not green. Three, while kryptonite glows, jadarite does not, though is does fluoresce pinkish-orange when exposed to ultraviolet light.

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