Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Science comic books

Another interesting NPR piece on two scientists who are bringing science to students using comic books.

Engineer Jim Ottaviani writes graphic novels about scientists. His first comic was about Hedy Lamar who was an inventor and scientist in addition to Hollywood star. He has also written about Niels Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Charles Robert Knight.


Dr. Jay Hosler is a biologist who also creates comics for his university classes. His books include Clan Apis, a biography a honey bee named Nyuki and The Sandwalk Adventures.

Hosler explains that comics are a perfect medium to explain scientific issues because they use shorthand to communicate ideas and science does too. He says comics tell stories in sequence, we have to understand time to understand comics. He points out that cave paintings were the original comic books. They are stories told in sequence through pictures.

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