I learned from Often in Error that Roz Chast, whose work some of you may know from the New Yorker, had some physics-themed cartoons in the May edition of Symmetry Magazine (one of them the cover). Here they are (click for larger, then perhaps click again to zoom):
I like the one on the left, I have to say. (A pseudoparticle called “poserino” is just great!) There’s something about the zoology and nomenclature of particles in high energy physics that must seem so comical to people from other fields. In fact, it’s comical to many people in the field too….
(Here’s a thought… if you’re not familiar with the field, are you able to tell which particle names in that cartoon are real ones and which are made up? It’s not clear to me that this is possible! Go on… take a guess at which ones are made up…)
By the way, this goes nicely with last month’s Physics-themed New Yorker cover by Jean-Jacques Sempé.
-cvj
I like the idea of artoons and physics. It makes things seem so much simpler. Maybe this could be the next “school aid” to help students learn. lol
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I’m intrigued to know what the footnote says!
Mary Cole said:
Yes. I remember that from about 20 years ago in fact! You may also be interested to know that my memory of that was partly inspiration for the humourous remark in the footnote on page 270 in my book “D-Branes”.
-cvj
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If you’re interested in a copy of the magazine autographed by Roz Chast, you can enter the competition Symmetry is running.
Clifford: Thank you for posting this. I look forward to my mailbox. I sometimes wonder what she can’t do–draw, paint, cartoon, take a beveled look at the world and help us see it differently, laugh at it and ourselves.
Don’t stop here but see her recent compilation of her extraordinary work, “Theory of Everything” (2006, Bloomsbury Publishing). I share one titled Secrets of Adulthood. Anybody can change a light bulb. Soap and water will take the rust stains right out. One shampoo is about as good as another. 99.9% of people don’t understand tides. The word “cosine,” never, ever (underlined twice) comes up. Its O. K. to throw out a pencil whenever you feel like it.
She is a gift and so is Symmetry, beautifully designed and written, always interesting.
We have a crazy modern art statue in the main quad at CWRU that various student organizations have taken to chalking (ie decorating) in various ways. This all started, of course, with a ragamuffin group of valiant physics students who did a chalking that looked shockingly similar to the cover cartoon.
We had monopoles too though, as it seemed a pity to leave them out. They all took the shape of unicorns, bigfoots, and even a cockatrice. 😉
Thanks for showing these great cartoons. I particularly like the ‘elusive Higgs Boson particle’! The quarks kind of struck a chord with me as I’ve always imagined that they are rather cute but strange fluffy animals. One day when I have the time (!), I will make a cuddly toy quark so I can really visualise my imaginary version.
Flerbs! brilliant.
I was wondering if the idea of ‘slightly less than real’ applied to the real ones?