Uploaded March 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

---

Marvel's Iron Fist has the power to focus his energy, or "chi", into his hand making glow yellow. But is there a way he and you could do this using real hard science?

W: martinarcher.co.uk
T: twitter.com/martinarcher
F: facebook.com/drmartinarcher


00:02 Iron Fist's Powers and Abilities
00:35 Incandescence, Black Body Radiation & Colour Temperature
01:21 Implications of a glowing hot hand
01:53 Luminescence and its different forms
03:13 Chemiluminescence - light from chemical reactions
03:26 Bioluminescence - light from biological organisms


Links for more information

Black Body Radiation, Colour Temperature & Planckian Locus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-body_radiation
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planckian_locus
academo.org/demos/colour-temperature-relationship

Luminescence
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminescence

Bioluminescence
nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/bioluminescence
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioluminescence
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/labs/mlatz/bioluminescence/bioluminescence-questions-and-answers/

Colour of Bioluminescent Light
2010.igem.org/Team:Cambridge/Bioluminescence/Colour


Music by MK2, Audionatix, and bensound.com