PNNL

Abstract

Institutions around the world are fighting to improve science communication all the time. From calls for journal papers to be simplified to encouraging scientists to take more of an active role through community engagement, there is an impetus to demystify and improve public understanding and engagement with science [1-3]. Technology has greatly helped expand the range of learning styles that a lecturer can call on to reach people in new ways. Social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr have expanded the reach of science communication within and across scientific disciplines and to the lay public [1, 3]. With all the videos, interactive quizzes, and instant feedback it can be easy to overlook one of the simplest methods for communicating complex ideas: comics. There are few scientists that haven’t heard of Randall Munroe, the artist behind the web comic xkcd (https://xkcd.com), which features amazing graphic explanations on everything from climate change (https://xkcd.com/1732/) to data storage (https://xkcd.com/1360/). These comics are so effective that they are posted on walls in laboratories and pubs alike. The ideas that they explain are complicated big ideas but by simplifying them down to the core messages and by providing simple visual analogies the comics educate people that other media can not always reach.