So, what is The Science Gap? It is this vast black hole between those people who dedicate a lifetime of research to understanding how the world works... well, and the rest of us, aka. "the general public".

In this 2012 talk at TEDxUCLA, Jorge Cham explore the public perception of scientists and academics, as well as how his collaboration with particle scientist Daniel Whiteson at CERN resulted in a viral video explaining the why and how of hunting for the Hicks Boson.

Jorge Cham is the creator of the online comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper (PHD) as well as the video channel PHD-TV. Born and raised in the Republic of Panama, he obtained his Ph.D. in Robotics from Stanford University and was an Instructor and Research Associate at Caltech before becoming a full-time cartoonist.

More at: jorgecham.com

(Thanks to Lynn Kearny for the link!)

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The brain is an amazing organ, with rich settings and intriguing characters. It lends itself nicely to metaphors. Unfortunately, there is little room for metaphor in scientific papers.

In this video, you can follow artist Matteo Farinella and neuroscientist Hana Ros of University College London as they collaborate to create a graphic novel called Neurocomic.

This scientific fantasy is about a hapless character who is sucked into a human brain where he encounters bizarre creatures and famous neuroscientists.

Their objective is to introduce the neurochemical workings of the brain to a wider audience, so entertainment, storytelling and clever metaphors are just as important to the enterprise as the science.

(via The Guardian)