This was the first cartoon I tweeted that seemed to strike a chord. I’ve mentioned the inequities of the grant system elsewhere and maybe one day will flesh this out into something more coherent. Regardless of how well it works, all of us in academia are trapped in it. Looking at now, a lot of […]
This is by far the bestseller in my RedBubble store it’s very popular as a sticker. I’d been toying with the idea of a steampunk brain for a while and this was the result. Despite its success I’ve tried redrawing it several times in slightly different styles – this one was done by hand and […]
I had this idea in my head for a long time before actually committing it to paper. Maybe deep down I was ashamed at such an awful pun. I also couldn’t decide how to draw the molecule on a bike, it didn’t look right freehand. In the end I did it entirely as vector art […]
Science is supposed to be objective and meritocratic, any scientist knows that it is far from that and the grant writing process is a prime example. Naturally if you step out of line and criticise it then it must be sour grapes because you didn’t get funded. I’ve thought many times about writing a blog […]
When the electrical signal carried by a nerve reaches the end of the cell there is a physical gap before the next nerve cell. To maintain the connection, neurotransmitters, such as glutamate or serotonin, are released by the electrical impulse. These diffuse across the gap, called a synapse, and bind to receptors on the next […]
Several of my cartoons fit under the theme of ‘In a real lab…’ The idea works two ways: to show how mundane things in a lab can be, despite the wonders of science. In return to take some of the slightly absurd routines and even superstitions of the lab and apply them to popular culture […]
The final part of the trilogy after part 1 and part 2.. I’m pleased with Sylvester’s chin and eyebrows and the slight grin of triumph as the montage reaches its climax! Rocky! Rocky!! ROCKY!!! And if you’ve got the tune stuck in your head now, my work here is done… This design is available on […]
This is the sequel to part 1. In the first one, the background steps and the blue hat are visual clues to the film sequence that this parodies. These iconic features are not visible on the indoor shots so I started developing the resemblance to Sylvester Stallone. As I’ve discussed elsewhere, combining the cell with […]
This is the first of a trio of cartoons that were inspired by a trip to Philadelphia. I drew them before I went and combined them into an animated montage in the style of film credits for a talk I was giving. I did of course climb these same steps to visit the fantastic art […]
Anyone who has worked in a lab will know that there are certain benches where all the equipment seems to end up. In my lab I tried to get a balance: as far as possible everyone had their own set of pipettes, dissecting kit, timer – things that you need all the time and/or are […]