Okay so last week I posted a Kate Beaton cartoon and many of you were like, “Whu?” But I love her and I will make you love her, too. Click the panel below to see Every Lady Scientist Who Ever Did Anything, a great comic using Rosalind Franklin as an example:
I’m always on board for more of her stuff. I think that the problem people had with that last comic (and probably bunches of her stuff) is that they expect a punchline or a specifically outlined “joke”. I feel like web comics allow creators to quickly explore funny ideas or situations without the need to always condense it into a straightforward joke and Kate does that extremely well.
She often forces me to go to wikipedia before I even understand her comics, but once I do it’s usually worth it.
Kate Beaton rules.
I love history and I love comics, therefore I love Kate Beaton.
@mikerattlesnake: So true, I’ve had to look up so many historical figures just to get the humor.
@mikerattlesnake: Very true about webcomics (I’m also reminded of Dinosaur Comics and pictures for sad children). But I’m also a fan of some dead-tree comics, like Get Fuzzy and Bizarro, which are thankfully devoid of such blunt sitcom punchlines.
Kate Beaton is the best. She is the best.
Oh Kate Beaton is wonderful, I discovered her last year. She’s Canadian you know- which is the thing every Canadian needs to say when a non-Canadian metions a Canadian. We’re wierd that way.
Ugh. Sad, but true. I went to an all-girls high school with an accelerated science program. “Rosalind Franklin and DNA” was first on our reading list!
Cool comic, will be going back for more :-)
Too late, Rebecca. I already love Kate Beaton. <3
Hooray for the love!
Am in the Beaton Club already.
And man, Watson and Crick were such dicks!
Rebecca, I liked the Yeti one but it didn’t hit my funny bone that hard. Knowing the back story of this one makes the sarcasm all the better, and now I’m looking forward to reading her stuff and sharing with my wife and daughter. I recall watching a BBC series about Rosalind Franklin’s amazing and sad story. It was quite an eye opener.
This really affected me. I had never even heard of Rosalind Franklin before. I want to shout her story to the world.
Fantastic! “Feeeeeeeelings”. So good.
FWIW, I thought the Yeti comic was great.
This one was really cool. I’d print it out and put it on my cubicle wall so I could be smug when people didn’t get it, but people generally don’t read what I put up…
BACKGROUND: Rosalind Franklin was an x-ray crystalographer. Basically, she could image molecules. At the time scientists thought that DNA was a triple helix or had other conformations. Her work showed the distinct footprint of the double helix. In the original Nature article and subsequent publications she was given back-seat authorship if any at all.
She died at 37.
It is so critical that we remind young women that science is a vibrant and exciting career choice. I think things are changing. In my lab of 13 there are two dudes, so maybe a good sign. What’s best is that the women are all assertive, strong and balanced. Excellent role models.
@kevinf: weird, thought my lab might be an anomaly. Mostly lady scientists here too.