FLASH - A character for nerds

Arun Sathvik

Research Intern @ Centre for Flexible Electronics and Advanced Materials | Engineering, Research Skills

Published Mar 19, 2025

Flash is one the most famous superheroes out there. He is most popular for his super speed. A seemingly simple topic such as this, has been explored to it's complete depths by comic book writers and fellow-geeks such as us. Let us explore his very interesting powers and how it impacts his physiology and neurology. I personally believe, if they truly explore his truly powers, he becomes unbeatable. So they nerf him down by a lot

Where does he get his powers from?

Most of Flash's powers come from the brilliant comic writer's minds and their beautiful creation called "Speed force". Speed Force is a fictional (obviously) fundamental physical quantity which is similar to gravity or time or so on, and is capable of interfering with these quantities which can help our Flash overcome "Laws of physics". Let us dive into his complete powers (nerdy stuff) so you can further understand the point we are trying to make. The Key aspects of his powers include (and why you don't want to mess with him):

Superfast movement: Flash is said to move at the speed of light in several comics. Maybe even faster (sometimes 37000 times, but if you make a character so fast, he does not stay interesting so there are inconsistencies).

With his powers, you can go to any place (whoosh....whoosh - just visited the Colosseum) in a "Flash".

Ability to define gravity: Due to his superspeed, he can run on buildings, or he can run on top of water, and so on. This means there is no place on the planet where he cannot reach you.
Phasing: On command, he can vibrate every atom in his body so fast, that he can literally phase through any physical surface. Which means no matter where you hide, no matter how protected you are he can get to you anytime and anywhere. This same power, causes an illusion of him duplicating himself. Because human mind is uncapable of following that speed so when he vibrates, he can cause an illusion of multiplying himself hundreds of times. This is also known as "Speed Mirage". And if he chooses to, he can move so quickly, he becomes practically impossible to look at to normal human eye.

Phasing and defying gravity

Super punch: Should you ever find yourself on the receiving end of an angry Flash's punch, you would experience a force that can rip open the universe and destroy existence. When he decides to throw his punch, he vibrates his hand just under the speed of light, making it an infinite mass punch. He generates the force of a WHITE DWARF in this process.
Time travel: He can travel many times faster than the speed of light and combine this with his help from speed force, he can travel anywhere in time. This causes extremely harsh consequences in some of the comic series truly exploring how bad time travel really is and what paradoxes it could cause. This is arguably his greatest superpower and draws inspiration from Theory of Relativity.

We can go on and speak about a lot more powers of his but this should be enough to explain how powerful he is.

Consequences of his Super Powers (getting into the science of it.... Get ready for a long ride)

Enhanced Neural Processing: (interesting part) His brain operates at extremely high speeds. Which means, every single response to stimuli is occurred in lesser than nanoseconds. His perception of time is slowed down to the utmost extent. In his own words, he can perceive time in attoseconds. This means the entire world just stops for him when he thinks so quickly. Any threat is just a remote button pause to him in real life and there is nothing that can affect him. He can read anything he wants in fractions of seconds, which makes him extremely smart. His reflexes are also stepped up to lighting speed thanks to this heightened neuron processing. In humans, the brain’s motor cortex controls voluntary movements, while the cerebellum refines coordination and balance. For The Flash, both these regions would have to operate at a vastly accelerated level, likely utilizing an ultra-fast version of synaptic transmission. Typical Human Nerve impulse travels at the speed of 120 meters per second, whereas the Flash would require instantaneous transmission of neural signals. This could be achieved through an advanced form of myelination, where the insulating sheath around neurons, made of myelin, is far denser, reducing resistance and dramatically increasing conduction velocity. His increase in reaction time could be due to hyperactive processing in prefrontal cortex. At The Flash’s speeds, time would appear to slow down for him, a phenomenon known as tachypsychia, which is observed in humans under extreme stress. His visual cortex would need to process images at a rate thousands of times faster than normal, requiring an enhanced occipital lobe with a vastly increased capacity for data processing.
Accelerated Metabolism: He has to consume massive loads of food to keep up with his extremely high metabolism. His cells process oxygen and nutrients far more efficiently. Fun fact, Flash can never get high due to this. No matter how much he wants to get intoxicated, it is insignificant before his metabolism. The human body relies on ATP (adenosine triphosphate) as its energy currency, produced primarily through cellular respiration. However, even elite athletes struggle with maintaining high energy output due to metabolic limits. Flash's body would have to break all the limits to move at this speed. One possibility, could be that his mitochondria - power house of the cell - are hyper efficient. Another possibility could be that his body somehow generates direct ATP skipping glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation to instantaneously convert chemical energy into kinetic energy.
Physical Structure: What happens to anyone after a long day of physical activity? Cramps and soreness in muscles. This is due to lactic acid buildup in us regular humans. His body would have to overcome that as well by enhanced Cori cycle which rapidly clears metabolic byproducts. Any regular heart would fail to pump enough blood to sustain his speed. So he would require a highly efficient cardiovascular system, possibly with a multi chamber heart (similar to how some birds and reptiles have) to rapidly oxygenate his blood. His lungs should be hyper-efficient to increase his oxygen intake and CO2 expulsions. Special alveolar structures could allow oxygen diffusion at rates many times higher than a normal human’s, preventing oxygen debt. At his speed, any bone would be shattered to atoms. His bones must be some kind of carbon nanostructure-like reinforcement, making them lightweight and sturdy. He would need to have ultra-dense form of fast-twitch muscle fibers to prevent muscle tearing and help for muscle contraction and relaxation.

All this being said, you wouldn't Flash's powers at all. They could either kill you instantly without other superpowers, or could possibly make you mad since a second can last for centuries to you. But that is a topic of discussion for another day (That is the real deal and a topic for another article... Word limit for assignment exceeded :) ).

We would like to thank our faculty Shyam Diwakar sir for giving us this opportunity to share our views on this character. We personally feel this is an exceptional way to make us fall in love with research and it makes us push our boundaries into going that extra mile to think what we usually wouldn't and possibly get ideas towards making improvements to what is already an amazing human body.