Chemistry World comic, August 2014

“Antibiotics”, said the Chemistry World editor. “Do something about antibiotic resistance”.

And that’s how this happened.

Single-shot: Publish

FLASH comic, November 2014(b)

EPFL students are often required to do an internship for their degrees. So FLASH asked me to draw something about it. So I *drew* from my personal experience with interns. Yes, that was a pun.

Chemistry World comic, April 2014

The Chemistry World editor wanted something about marketing feature-boasting on lab equipment and kits. They needn’t have said more.

Musing: Scientists have mixed feelings about kits. On one hand, they offer standardization across labs, save time, and make Method sections easy to write (“…as per manufacturer’s instructions”).

On the other hand, they can make researchers intellectually lazy, or limit creative scientific thinking. Also, kits ain’t cheap, and we all know that research grants don’t exactly make it rain in da club.

But I see a better way. I see a day where all research will ultimately be done out of a kit. You go online, order your kit, it arrives in the post, you open it, follow the instructions – and BAM! Complete PhD thesis. Nature paper. Science cover page. Nobel prize. All out of a kit.

It’s the dream. Or maybe a good comic idea. And neither comes in a kit.

Yet.

Chemistry World comic, February 2014

Chemistry World was doing an issue on chemophobia. “Hey Nik”, they said. “Do something funny about the public’s irrational fear of chemicals.”

So I dissolved some 1,3,7-Trimethylpurine-2,6-dione into some dihydrogen monoxide, added some α-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-β-D-fructofuranoside, drank it, and then I drew this. BECAUSE I KNOW NO FEAR.