Vita Radiation

Vita Radiation is an exotic form of radiation that, despite their usage in the cutting-edge developments of science, remain highly ill-understood. It is also known by the shortened term of "Vita-Rays."

Vita radiation is the emission of a type of unique energy associated with living organisms. Specifically, its primary effect is in the healthy growth, development and even beneficial mutation of organic or organic-like material. Rather than interfere with cell growth like conventional radiation, vita radiation has shown beneficial effects on cells though like all radiation, overexposure can lead to dangerous side effects. It can be classified as either ionic or non-ionic radiation depending on its source and amount of energy behind the wave.

It's been observed that vita radiation is found concentrated in areas with high amounts of living beings such as in nature or large population centers. However, it can only be detected through esoteric and specialized monitoring and detecting equipment. Additionally, attempts at artifically reproducing vita radiation along with harvesting it has been proven to be very limited by human technology.

The earliest modern evidence correlating to the study of vita radiation was during the 19th century, namely with concepts known as "the odic force", vitalism and "orgone energy." While all of them initially dismissed as pseudoscience, they are now considered protoscientific approaches into understanding what is now called vita radiation, each of them having different if incomplete approaches that nonetheless contributed to the growth of the field. Additionally, there has been connections between vita radition and the Chinese mysticism concept of "qi". According to classified files and practioners of chi, they are they are not the same, though vita radiation is radiated from chi in larger-than normal quantities (they compare to how light or heat is emitted by fire.) As such, it's been theorized and observed that certain individuals can produce much greater amounts of vita radiation and manipulate it to some degree.

However, the first major step in the study of vita radiation came in the research of German Jewish scientist, Dr. Abraham Erskine (pseudoym "Joseph Reinstein") who deveoped the Vita-Ray Chamber. This chamber can expose individuals to high levels of vita radiation needed to induce radical yet healthy and stable changes to the human body, to where some even claim it can be built upon to accelerate human evolution. The first Vita-Ray Chamber was built by Erskine as part of Project Rebirth, a government program to transform military men into the peak physical perfection. After the success of Steve Rogers, the chamber would be destroyed after a Nazi spy attempted to steal the Chamber and kidnap Rogers. Erskine would cause the Chamber to self-destruct along with ending his own life, to ensure the research could not fall into the wrong hands.

Despite this, the leftover notes of the Vita-Ray Chamber was enough to try and provide some research into their nature. While the basics were understood well, the details remained mysterious, especially as part of the blueprints (and process of the Serum) was held privately by Erskine in his own head while his notes were encoded in Hebrew. The basics for the Vita-Ray Chamber would spread throughout obscure outlets of the scientific community and derivatives were established. One prominnent example was that it would provide stabilization for genetic modficiation formulas, as seen in the unexpected transformation of Dr. Curt Connors into the Lizard.

Even now, no one has successfully reconstructed the Vita-Ray Chamber to its original design and while the study of Vita Radiation remains an ongoing subject, most of it is in the theoretical without a reliable way to artificially produce it in large quantities to result in sufficient study. However, various private and clandestine organizations have continued to use partially reverse-engineered variants of the chamber to perform questionable experiments involving vita radiation.

It's theorized that Vita Radiation can be "mixed" with other radiations to produce "superpower granting" effects and it's speculated that this is how "Cosmic radiation" can grant superhuman abilities and that this is the trigger for potential "gamma mutates" to develop their superhuman capabilities.