HEROES

Chandra Suresh, an Indian geneticist and also Mohinder's father, whose life work revolved around finding people with abilities, discovered the posthumans. He apparently used the Human Genome Project as a preface to his research in human DNA. He found that people with abilities all share a specific genetic marker that can be identified and tracked. He creates a formula to find almost every DNA strand that contains that specific marker and he compiles a list of humans with abilities. Unfortunately, he is killed before the first season begins and his son must continue his research.

Critics, however, laugh at this so-called science behind Heroes. The Human Genome Project, first of all, was a study of only 24 subjects. There is no possibility to generalize a strand of DNA for any size population with only 24 subjects, especially if that genetic marker is supposedly rare. One would have to travel around the world, taking samples from hundreds of thousands of people in order to obtain that information. Another flaw in the scientific findings of Heroes is the fact that these superpowers are products of evolution. The producer of Heroes, Greg Breenman, said this during an interview that sparked some controversy:

"What is your favorite part of the Heroes concept?

The exploration of human beings evolving 'of humanity going to the next level of evolution and the 'how, why, why now' questions that stirs up. "

The problem critics have with this statement is that there are no levels of evolution since evolution has no direction. The human race is changing, just not at the rate at which the Heroes producers seem to present that it is. The only way evolution could occur at the rate they describe is if the posthumans out breed the "normal" humans. Otherwise, they would remain a very small fraction of the global population.

Does this make Heroes a heroic fantasy such as X-Men not science fiction? Simply, no it does not. This is because Heroes uses science based knowledge to explain for the change in human physiology. X-Men and other heroic fantasy stories have absolutely no scientific background, and merely state, "it’s evolution". Heroes, on the other hand, uses science to explain what is happening to the human race. Although they may present it poorly, one has to understand the audience tuning in. NBC cannot have a television show that uses terminology that only a quarter of the population could understand or it would not be able to air on network television. They had to accommodate to their viewers and use the sciences in terms everyone can understand, and did so successfully.