Comments on: The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology

By: Shivachandana

Shivachandana — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:43:10 +0000

Innovative approaches to education are best displayed by ideas like this one. Illustrative and personally dynamic, storied science is inherently easier to understand and retain. Even more true in regard to typically ‘dry’ fields of learning.

Real scientific understanding isn’t some text or graph, but an appreciation of the active interaction of objects and forces that comprise the gestalt we call “reality”

By: Rick Pierson

Rick Pierson — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:20:38 +0000

It’s retarded.

By: Polecat

Polecat — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:41:11 +0000

Oh, if only science were taught in this manner. Then I would be much more compelled to fulfill my science credits.

Then again, there’s only so much that can be conveyed through the manga. At some point, the student will have to buckle down and study.

But in the meantime, Enzyme Man is quite entertaining…

By: fleb

fleb — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:53:58 +0000

Woo

this is just cool/insane. It just remind me a french cartoon describing somehow complex biology processes and that I used to watch when I was kid. Name is “Il etait une fois la vie” (One upon the life – not sure it actually means something in english), you can watch some on youtube. Well, minus creapy monsters and plate-sized eyes of course

By: P. H. Hatecraft

P. H. Hatecraft — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:10:48 +0000

I like this idea (I would have loved to have had something like this for the science classes I struggled with in high school), but do all books like this have to use the stereotypical nauseatingly cute manga artwork? I do like some manga, like the works of Osamu Tezuka and Katsuhiro Otomo and some other people, but I find a lot of manga character design to be rather cloying.

By: AM Ross

AM Ross — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:48:46 +0000

Well done! (Now this is what I missed by forgoing molecular biology for journalism, all those years ago! [whine]) Gave me a needed laugh — but now I’m getting scowls from my fellow students in the law library. Must be quiet. Must be very quiet.

By: Punkwasher

Punkwasher — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:53:01 +0000

Yeah, it’s awesome. An inspiration for textbook writers everywhere.

BTW, just want to complement PZ on his work. We need more intellectuals like you!

By: taavet

taavet — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:39:18 +0000

I own manga guides to calculus and databases. Both are very capably written introductory texts so I’d guess this one’s pretty good as well.

By: xadrian

xadrian — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:52:17 +0000

This reminds me of the Cartoon History of the Universe books. I need to have these.

By: Kitanne

Kitanne — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:09:54 +0000

I’m an art major, so I don’t usually get to learn about fun science stuff like this. Even I did take a biology class, the textbook would be so boring/verbose that I would probably want to stab it. Or be to busy being frustrated with how ugly it was.

This is a subject that I’d love to learn more about but is pretty hard to self educate yourself in without getting hopeless lost in techno babble. So I’m totally for this version of slightly silly science if it taught me anything about molecular biology. I mean, who doesn’t love proteins?

By: heather

heather — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:31:22 +0000

Science has never been so sparkly…and I hope it never will

By: cheffanxx

cheffanxx — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:12:24 +0000

I believe my Asian flush is caused by the lack of that doggy friend at the end.

By: FishBottleT

FishBottleT — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:17:19 +0000

I think that the way that they teach this is awesome!! As long as the students or kids lets say know about the actual lesson and are not more interested in the story. DrinkZilla has a hold on me thats for sure. haha They should come out with a new drink called the drinkzilla

By: zavatone

zavatone — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:12:54 +0000

OMG. I am horrified by the match of my love (I hearts biology) and my loathing, large eyed, spiky haired, unnaturally gesturing people, overly dramatic manga.

Pardon me while I go out back to explode now.