Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Explanations

Left panel (Good Explanations): A student walks up a steep but manageable incline, saying, "Steady progress!" Right panel (Bad Explanations): A student looks up a series of sheer cliffs, like a giant staircase that they could never hope to climb. They say, "Well then."

The tricky part is that one giant step can ruin a perfectly good incline.

08 Dec 2021

Survivor Bias

Left panel (At the end): A prominent scientist declares, "The direction to my success was always clear." Right panel (At the beginning): The scientist holds a map with only a few spots filled in, and a huge question mark. "What am I supposed to do?!"

Don’t fool yourself by only listening to those who succeeded.

06 Dec 2021

Recipes

A graduate student holds a recipe book, whose back cover says, "The best recipes!". The student says, "There's nothing here telling me *how* to make my own recipes." Caption: The transition from classes to research was challenging.

Wait, you mean you don’t just solve more complicated equations as you go further in school?

03 Dec 2021

Extra Credit

On the left, a regular scientist says, "My work will be important for society." On the right, the physicist says, "My work is crucial for *everything*, inlcuding your work."

We’re a modest bunch.

01 Dec 2021

Reciprocal

A graph of the time you have for a given project versus the number of projects. The function is an inverse power-law decay, so more projects means less time per project.

You might think this is just your average inverse relationship, but it’s probably closer to the inverse of some power. Don’t discount the switching costs!

29 Nov 2021

Organized

First panel: A male and female scientist walk together. The male scientist asks, "Can you explain in more detail?" The female scientist responds and points, "Sure, it's all over there." Second panel: The two scientists stand beside a large pile of unorganized information. The male scientist says, "That's just a pile of unorganized information!" The female scientist replies, "Did you expect me to arrange it for you? That's cute."

“I have to make you work for it!”

26 Nov 2021

Missing Pieces

A person sits down at a table with a puzzle that's a scientific paper, and exclaims, "How could they ship me a puzzle without all the puzzles?!"

To find the missing piece, please consult puzzle 315.

24 Nov 2021

Terms

A Venn diagram indicating sections which are "Roughly Speaking" and "Loosely Speaking". In "Roughly Speaking", there's a singer's 'gargling glass' voice. In "Loosely Speaking", there's talking while drunk. The intersection is terms mathematics and physicists use.

I mean, this is only roughly accurate.

22 Nov 2021

Holding

A scientist balancing many boxes on their head, including papers, data, code, and ideas. The scientist says, "I can hold this all at once." Caption: What happens when you don't document your research.

Those computer programmers were up to something with that whole commenting system for code.

19 Nov 2021

First-Person Plural

A paper with the title "A simple classification of particles", by Martina Laner. The abstract reads, "In this work, we present a new scheme for the known particles. We offer new predictions..." Caption: I love how single authors use the first-person plural.

Apologies to any scientists named Martina Laner out there!

17 Nov 2021