Superman's supporting characters include his love interest and fellow journalist Lois Lane, Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen and editor-in-chief Perry White, and enemies such as Brainiac, General Zod, and his archenemy Lex Luthor. Clark resides in the fictional American city of Metropolis, where he works as a journalist for the Daily Planet. To protect his personal life, he changes into a colorful costume and uses the alias 'Superman' when fighting crime. His adoptive parents advised him to use his abilities for the benefit of humanity, and he decided to fight crime.

Clark developed various superhuman abilities, such as incredible strength and impervious skin. He was found and adopted by farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent, who named him Clark Kent. His ship landed in the American countryside, near the fictional town of Smallville. When he was a baby, his parents sent him to Earth in a small spaceship moments before Krypton was destroyed in a natural cataclysm. Superman was born on the fictional planet Krypton and was named Kal-El. Superman has been adapted to a number of other media, including radio serials, novels, films, television shows, theater productions, and video games.

The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book Action Comics #1 ( cover-dated June 1938 and published April 18, 1938). Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics.

Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility and reflexes.

Overcoming the unknown.ĭo you have an innovative achievement you’d like to celebrate-something others in the photonics community could benefit from? Reach out. At least in my experience, it’s the excitement of being able to address the problems you did not even know existed when you first embarked on the challenge. Goals are really just milestones and reminders to celebrate the successes along the way. It’s great to have the goal at the end, but for innovators, that’s rarely the endgame. Directed energy, uncrewed planes, and an array of optical sensor-based systems continue to achieve new milestones. As a result, many of the core components needed to turn the Star Wars dream into a reality don’t just exist, the current offerings are amazingly advanced. The people who have been in the trenches at government labs like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the many prime- and sub-contractors involved have been introducing innovation after innovation along the way. But that could not be further from the truth. I can feel the pain the engineers and scientists experienced throughout the research and development of the various components.Īt a quick glance, it may appear that we are no closer than we were at the program’s kickoff. There was a lot of money officially dumped into the program for roughly a decade. Remember the excitement around President Reagan’s strategic defense initiative nicknamed Star Wars introduced in 1983? It had a lot of lofty goals, requiring advanced technology that just didn’t exist at the time. What got me thinking about this was a solid panel discussion at the Laser Focus World Executive Forum on directed energy.

And sometimes it ends up just being a timing issue-even the most amazing innovation can struggle to achieve the traction anticipated if the market is not ready to embrace its awesomeness. Even the best laid plans with seemingly perfect roadmaps are littered with annoying detours and sometimes impossible roadblocks. There’s no way around it, there is a bit of a high to it.īut having been intimately involved in developing innovative new products myself back in my manufacturing days, I know all too well that there is always an unavoidably healthy dose of discouragement, disappointment, and maddening frustration along the way. The thrill of fulfilling the inventor’s dream. Watching as industry embraces your innovation. Thinking about all the innovations constantly happening within photonics, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the excitement.

Stars beyond reach twitter