Ah it’s week 5 of semester: assignments, quizzes, mid-semester tests looming on the horizon. On one hand, we can strap down and get cracking. On the other hand, we can totally spend a few hours browsing our favourite sciencey, nerdy, geeky web-comics to lighten our spirits.
Yeah, I like that second option.
You may have seen some of these in our weekly newsletters, neatly implanted at the bottom to give us a humourous or tongue-in-cheek respite from our looming academic realities. Here’s a list of some of our favs – but it’s by no means an exhaustive list.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Cartoonist Zach Weinersmith (yes, it’s a funny name and he’s not adverse to making fun of himself) puts up daily comics about “just about everything from science to philosophy to economics to dirty jokes”. Often he’d take a scientific or philosophical principle, apply slightly and majorly warped logic, and the result is something weird, ridiculous and fabulously fun.
I just spent about 2 hours yesterday catching up on missed comics.
UnderDone Comics
We’ve just been introduced to this comic: Underdone Comics by Rob Lang who draw and writes about natures’ shenanigans.
Pearls of raw nerdism
Who is the author of this webcomic? Personal details are sparse – but who cares? He/she has comics about all realms of science…including the adventures of Science Cat.
…and yeah, there’s something to suggest that cats may be afraid of cucumbers.
xkcd
This well known webcomic is all about science. Randall Munroe is a physics graduate and has previously worked with NASA! The comic is well known for its dry sarcasm and stick figures.
Zen Pencils
Not necessarily all science-based, but Melbourne-born Gavin Aung Than draws inspiration from all walks of life and literature, and translates them into beautiful comics. They’re often a longer comic, complete with a quick history of the person who made the inspirational quote.
I love this site because it is so inspirational – and definitely a lift-me-up whenever I feel my acadmic course is getting too much.
For example, the below image only shows the very beginning of Phil Plait’s quote…click on the image to continue reading the whole thing. I super recommend it.
Others from Zen Pencils:
- On the Shoulder of Giants
- Richard Feynman on The Beauty of a Flower
- Isaac Asimov: A lifetime of learning
- Neil Armstrong: A giant among men
…And others
There are sooooo many webcomics out there and obviously this is only a short list of the ones we’ve come across. We’ve just discovered that there are indeed so much more!
Check out Beatrice the Biologist‘s list (who runs another science webcomic herself) of a bunch of other webcomics she’s discovered: Science comics.
More than enough for some (un)healthy procrastination, eh?
