Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Objectivity

Thinking that scientists are all objective is a convenient fiction.

Scientists are humans. Humans do strange things that aren’t always objective.

I’ll let you do the rest.

Subspace

My research area is a subspace of a subspace of a subspace.

I’m a quantum-entanglement-many-body-physics theorist. If you want more words shoved in, I can accommodate!

Fragmented

Trying to understand a paper often includes reading a ton of other papers. This is academia's version of "batteries not included".

The best part is that the papers that really help me understand aren’t often the cited ones.

Oh, who am I kidding? It’s usually the Physics or Quantum Computing StackExchange which give me the answers I need.

Exposure

Seeing researcher's code has made me appreciate how great most apps are by comparison.

Of course, the worst researcher’s code I’ve seen is often my own.

Cutting Edge

Trying to climb a very steep slope is the metaphor for research.

The best feeling is when you discover there’s actually a flight of stairs on the other side.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledging everything that made it possible to do the paper.

Happy belated Mother’s Day all you mothers, and may more of our acknowledgements sections include all of the important supporting players in our lives!

Non-Linear

The toolkit you build as a physicist doesn't include many tools to deal with nonlinear phenomena.

Inspired by the book Chaos, by James Gleick. I’d highly recommend it!

Research Directions

A sign for where to go next in your research, but the directions are unhelpful.

Be thankful you even have a sign.

Common Notation

How it's so fun to navigate three papers which have almost the same equations, but each off by a few factors.

This is sort of like learning a new language: When you’re beginning, you have to translate everything from the new language into your preferred language, interpret it, and then translate it back. This is why it takes so long to read these papers!

Papers

We read a lot of papers, "read" a lot more, and cite a ton.

This is why I need a citation manager.