Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Gauntlet

A scientist and her friend are on a raised platform, overlooking a scene where many other scientists (her coauthors) are congregated. One is reclined on a chair and is reading the paper. She says to her friend, "My changes are almost through the gauntlet! I almost can't believe--" Then the last coauthor reading the paper exclaims, "I have a few objections..." Caption: Coauthors.

No matter how high of a probability p that a given coauthor will accept, your overall chances of your coauthors accepting the changes will dwindle with the number of coauthors.

Lesson

A person is walking with their friend while carrying a paper they just finished. He says, "Wow, I barely finished this on time after putting it off for so long." His friends says, "I'm sure you learned a good lesson for the next time." He answers, "Yep, that I can put things off until the last minute and still be fine."

“Look, I’m just following where the evidence leads.”

Carrying

A scientist stands with many items stacked on top of their head. They are barely balancing it. Caption: Remembering a paper's million acronyms.

And that’s before you start carrying definitions and concepts from other papers they reference!

Unbraiding

Two curves representing your research opinions and those of your supervisor's over time. On the left, they move in lockstep. But after some amount of time, there comes a decoupling point where they diverge, representing when you become an independent researcher.

And that’s when you know you’re ready to graduate!

Tether

A man approaches a pile of objects all tethered to a post marked "Other People". A woman is in front of him, pointing behind her and saying, "Yep, just go tie up over there." In his hands is his object, labeled, "Self Worth".

“Do you mind if I bring my Confidence too?”

Salvage

Left panel: A researcher and her grad student are at a blackboard. She says, "Let's come up with an algorithm." Middle panel: Much later, the grad student is sitting on a bench with his arms in the air and complains, "This isn't working. We've wasted so much time!" Right panel: The researcher replies, "Of course not. We can now write a *physics* paper explaining why things don't work."

When you can’t succeed at the computer science, turn to the physics.

Hat tip to my supervisor for the rationale!

Yes

A woman holds one hand to her chin as she views a conveyor belt bringing too many boxes her way. She says, "Maybe I shouldn't have said 'yes' to everything..."

Actually, those are just the items from a few years ago that we really should be clearing out.

Scientific Writing

Left panel: A scientist unearths a discovery and shouts, "Finally, I've uncovered it!" Upper right panel ("Good Writing"): The scientist hands his publication to a colleague in a nice package and says, "Here it is, all polished." Bottom right panel ("Bad Writing"): The scientists hands his publication to a colleague in the exact same form he found it and says, "It's exactly how I found it!"

“Sorry, I can’t stay and chat about it. I have 10 other publications I’m working on right now.”

Portrait

A portrait of a graduate student drawing a boat instead of working. Caption: Portrait of a grad student procrastinating.

“I’m not procrastinating, I’m thinking of my research problem!”

Proximity

A graph of "How easy it is to solve" versus "Proximity to the problem". It's an inverse relationship, with it being harder to solve the problem when it's closer to you.

Without that emotional attachment, it sure is easy to prescribe what to do for others!