Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Scientific Perspective

First panel. Student: "Hi, I'm here to buy some scientific perspective. What do you recommend?" Second panel. Seller: "Sure, we have plenty to choose from. We offer cosmologist, astrophysicist, evolutionary biologist, regular biologist, psychologist, computer scientist, and many more!" Third panel. Student: "Well, there are a lot of interesting options. Can I pick more than one?" Seller: "Absolutely not! Haven't you seen how science works? The best scientists choose one perspective in grad school, and they stick with it."

I think I’ve shown my biases when it comes to listing a variety of scientific perspectives…

04 May 2020

Chain of Command

First panel. Supervisor: "Ugh, more busywork for this project. If only I had someone else to deal with this... Wait a second, that's what I hired a post-doc for!" (Sends an email) Second panel. Post-doc: "Why does she think I want to do this? I have research to do. Wait a second, we have a grad student in our group! I'll just send it to her. I'm sure she won't mind." Third panel. Grad student: "Why is he sending this to me? I have a conference posted to create! Wait a second, I could offload this to that new undergrad we hired for the summer. They can take care of it!" Fourth panel. Undergraduate: "Did they all forget that this is only my second week?!"

The next step is the undergraduate sending this work to their future self.

01 May 2020

More Questions Than Answers

First panel. Student 1: "I can't wait to start my physics degree. After only twenty or so classes, I'll understand all of physics." Second panel. Student 1: "Just think, I'll know more about physics than Newton or Einstein!" Third panel (three years later). Student 2: "So, how did that physics degree go? Do you know more than Newton and Einstein?" Student 1: "All I learned was that I have a lot more questions than answers."

The gift of education is an opening of your eyes to just how much more there is to learn.

29 Apr 2020

Proof Routes

First panel. Student: "Ugh, I need to prove three different things to get what I need! And I'll need a lot more space..." (Long Route) Second panel. Student: "Oh, this is easy to prove! I just need to quote five different theorems. No work required." (Efficient route)

All students strive to be able to take the Efficient Route, and yet it is the most elusive of paths to a proof.

27 Apr 2020

Ansatz

The “respectable” way to use a shortcut.

24 Apr 2020

Filling The Bucket

First panel (undergraduate): A cloud labelled 'collect this information', and a student with a bucket. Student: "I'm pretty good at this. I should go to grad school!" Second panel (graduate): Teacher: "Okay, time to come up with your own original idea!" Student: "But how am I going to fill up my bucket?"

I wonder how well we prepare students during their undergraduate degree to make the decision of doing graduate studies.

22 Apr 2020

Intuition

Professor: "So what does your physical intuition tell you?" Student (thinking about finding their intuition): "Umm..." Caption: Each time I'm asked for my intuition, I feel like I'm being tested for my worth as a physicist.

I’ve been meaning to get to this, but I just can’t seem to find the time…

20 Apr 2020

Participation Grade

It's kind of telling how fun a course is when you see a participation grade.

At least the professors are being transparent.

17 Apr 2020

Abridged

First panel: "Eight pages later, and I'm done! That's going to be long to include in the book..." Second panel: "That should be good!" Textbook simply says: "After some straightforward algebra, one finds..."

Are textbook authors trying to make me think I’m stupid?

15 Apr 2020

Historical Conventions

Student: "Professor, why are you teaching us like that? It's confusing." Professor: "Three reasons: I'm used to it, it makes sense to me, and I'm the boss."

Student: “I’m going to fight against these stupid conventions!”

Professor (shrugs): “Fine, but I think every student in the history of teaching science has said that, and yet here I am.”

13 Apr 2020