當(dāng)高冷化學(xué)遇上漫畫(huà)書(shū)

Veronica Berns loves to 1）doodle. Veronica： People in my family love to draw， too， so it was a way that， like， we all sort of communicated with each other.

She also loves chemistry. Her doctoral thesis at the University of Wisconsin was about 2）quasicrystals. Veronica： So， we took the output of these 3）density functional theory calculations， and turned them into these visualizable pressures that we could use to link the simple calcium-copper 5 type to the more complicated sci-type quasicrystal.

She knew her family and friends wouldn’t be able to understand that.

Veronica： And it’s something that， you know， I worked really hard on， and I wanted to be able to…to share it with them， and to share with them， like， how excited I was about it.

So she decided to combine her two loves into a comic book.

Veronica： That’s part of the silly things to make people laugh， that they’re all me dressing up weird throughout the book.

She drew the 50 pages over eight months， while finishing her written thesis. Her chemistry professor said he was impressed with it.

Prof. Danny Frederickson： How would you communicate this to someone that doesn’t do science？ Well， it’s this！ Right？ This is it！

The comic book ended up as the last chapter of her thesis. She kept it a secret from her parents until after it was finished.

Veronica： They…they thought it was really cool.

She also thought others might find it cool， so she went to Kickstarter and raised over $14，000， more than twice as much as she asked for. She says schools are already interested in it.

Veronica： It’s really important， like， now more ever， to talk about science in a…in an accessible way.

Turns out quasicrystals break the ordered and organized rules of crystals， just like Veronica Berns did with her thesis.

維羅妮卡·伯恩斯很喜歡信手畫(huà)上幾筆。

維羅妮卡：我家里的人也都喜歡畫(huà)畫(huà)，所以，這算是我們之間采取的一種交流的方式。

她還熱愛(ài)化學(xué)。她在美國(guó)威斯康星州大學(xué)攻讀博士學(xué)位，其學(xué)位論文的內(nèi)容是準(zhǔn)晶體。

維羅妮卡：是這樣，我們把密度泛函理論計(jì)算的結(jié)果轉(zhuǎn)化成可視壓力，然后利用它把簡(jiǎn)單的5型鈣銅與更復(fù)雜的科技型準(zhǔn)晶體相連。

她知道親友們不會(huì)明白這些事兒。

維羅妮卡：你知道，那可是我一直努力研究的東西，我想讓他們也能夠……分享我的成果，我想讓他們都知道我對(duì)此事是多么興奮。

于是，她決定把自己的兩個(gè)喜好融合成一本漫畫(huà)書(shū)。

維羅妮卡：書(shū)里的我總是穿著怪異，這正是此書(shū)引人發(fā)笑的部分滑稽內(nèi)容。

她在寫(xiě)博士論文的同時(shí)，花了八個(gè)月的時(shí)間創(chuàng)作了50頁(yè)漫畫(huà)。她的化學(xué)教授對(duì)此很是佩服。

丹尼·弗雷德里克森教授：你該如何對(duì)行外人解釋科研內(nèi)容呢？嗯，就是這樣！對(duì)不對(duì)？就是這個(gè)樣子！

這本漫畫(huà)書(shū)最終成了維羅妮卡學(xué)位論文的最后一章。在書(shū)完成之前，她一直對(duì)父母保密。

維羅妮卡：他們……他們覺(jué)得這事兒太酷了。

她想或許其他人也會(huì)覺(jué)得這是一件很酷的事，于是她就去眾籌網(wǎng)站Kickstarter籌錢(qián)，并成功籌到了一萬(wàn)四千多美元，是她當(dāng)初申請(qǐng)的兩倍多。她說(shuō)，有不少學(xué)校表示對(duì)此書(shū)有興趣。

維羅妮卡：如何以更加易懂的方式討論科學(xué)，此事在目前比以往任何時(shí)候都重要。

原來(lái)，準(zhǔn)晶體打破了晶體原本的有序規(guī)則，而維羅妮卡·伯恩斯的學(xué)位論文也同樣打破了常規(guī)。