Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Good Science / Bad Science

In the first panel, the two researchers are in a boat without a motor, allowing them to go where the Data waters takes them. In the second panel, the researchers have installed a motor so that they can go against the river.

“Don’t you think this motor will bias our results?”

“Of course it will, but we can just handwave it away in the “Discussion” section of our paper!”

14 Jun 2019

In The Trenches

The professor welcomes the new students to graduate school, and explains that this isn't like an undergraduate degree. It's not just seeing the highlights. It's about going in the trenches and getting dirty.

I got the idea for this after visiting a university for their graduate program in physics. The professor said that while undergraduate studies are like seeing the best cathedrals and architecture, graduate studies are like having to build these from scratch with no prior knowledge.

12 Jun 2019

Legibility

The professor tells the students that they will be using the symbol "Xi" for a quantity, even though literally any other symbol could be used.

“Professor, why do we use this symbol? It’s so difficult to write.”

“Oh, you’ll get used to it after writing it a thousand times!”

10 Jun 2019

No Distractions

In the first panel, the student decides to read some papers outside with no distractions. In the second panel, they begin reading only to find that they need access some other papers (but the student doesn't have Wi-Fi.

It feels so strange to think that you used to go to a library to search for these papers instead of having easy(-ish) access online.

07 Jun 2019

Foundations

A professor leads a group of students to a glass case in which the axioms of mathematics are held. The professor wants them to see the axioms at least once in their lives.

“Do we need to know this for the test, Professor?”

“Nah, I barely remember them!”

05 Jun 2019

Experiment Public Relations

In the first panel, the researcher walks to his computer to check the calculations for the 30th time. In the second panel, the researcher discusses the experiment with a friend, telling them how amazing the whole experiment is and how much fun he's having. This is the PR version.

“There weren’t any difficult aspects?”

“Nope, everything was amazing!”

03 Jun 2019

Excited

A professor presents a problem in class, and talks so fast that all of their words jumble together.

This might sound like a rare problem, but it happens more than you might think. In particular, I see it when professors start rattling off long theorems that they know by heart.

31 May 2019

Obscure

A researcher tries to find a citation for an obscure paper on a search engine and can't find any results.

“My field is so niche that even the search engines have no idea what I’m typing in!”

29 May 2019

Thermodynamic Relations

Step one: buy alphabet soup, both in Latin and Greek format. Step two: roll a multi-sided die which encodes various mathematical operations. Combine as necessary to find a thermodynamic relation.

“I should be able to turn this into some kind of machine learning algorithm.”

27 May 2019

Sets

Two students stand in a messy office. The friend can't believe there's such a mess, but the other student says there's only one item: the set of items to clean up.

“I really shouldn’t have given you that book on set theory…”

24 May 2019