by Tom Gauld (Canongate)
This week, we have a jumbo dose of Tom Gauld, who has been producing weekly cartoons for 91av for the past few years.
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“I like being the funny guy in the midst of a thoughtful magazine,” he says. Seeing Gauld’s cartoons before the rest of the world is a perk of working for 91av. They tackle a huge variety of scientific topics and always make everyone laugh and smile. His new book, Department of Mind-Blowing Theories, was published this month and draws together some of his best work.
How does Gauld come up with his ideas? “I always carry a sketchbook – one in my pocket, and one in my bag,” he says. He tries to catch ideas as they emerge, so that each week “I’m not starting from nowhere”.
Take the Department of Experimental Geometry cartoon. “That was a case of the joke fitting the image,” says Gauld. “I’ve always liked weird mathematical drawing and knew it would be a good basis for a ǰ.”
Science wasn’t always a natural topic for Gauld, as he hadn’t studied the subject since secondary school. “When I got the job, I started educating myself. I subscribed to lots of science podcasts and began reading the magazine thoroughly,” he says.
Gauld’s cartoons are also a big hit on social media, where they are regularly shared and commented on.
Scientists are often the butt of the joke in his work, but they also seem to enjoy the cartoons. Gauld says several scientists have asked for his permission to include one of his cartoons in a presentation or a paper.
So why do they like them? “I think it’s because I have a respect for their work. I make fun of it in a careful way, like teasing a friend,” he says.
That teasing serves a purpose. , cartoonist and scientist Jason McDermott said: “There are divides between scientific fields and between scientists and the general public. Comics can help bridge these divides by making a hard concept or complicated subject more approachable.”
Gauld, with his uncanny ability to humanise scientists and their fields, achieves this every week. Take his cartoon about “literally blowing minds” (bottom far-left). Gauld tells me it was inspired by a tour guide at a stately home who warned him that the next room was “literally mind-blowing”.
The joke is ultimately about language, but it also fits into the world of research, says Gauld. “You should try to be clear in science.” Of course, it works so well because science is often filled with bewildering terminology.
So what is next for Gauld? He has quantum mechanics in his sights. “That’s my dream – to draw a really good quantum mechanics ǰ.”
