2010-10-31
Explanation
This two-panel comic contrasts what the general public values in scientific discoveries versus what scientists themselves value. The top panel, labeled "Discoveries People Cherish," shows an excited scientist announcing he has discovered a way to transmute water into fuel. This represents the kind of world-changing, practically useful breakthrough that makes headlines and earns public admiration. The bottom panel, labeled "Discoveries Scientists Cherish," shows a disheveled scientist sitting alone at a bar with a bottle of whiskey, announcing he has discovered a way to transmute whiskey into breakfast.
The joke plays on the stereotype that scientists -- particularly academics -- have chaotic personal lives and questionable self-care habits. While the public dreams of breakthroughs like free energy, the scientist's own greatest achievement is finding a way to justify drinking whiskey in the morning by reclassifying it as a meal. The word "transmute" in both panels creates a parallel structure that makes the contrast funnier: one is alchemy in the noble sense, the other is alchemy in the "I have a drinking problem" sense.
The votey panel shows a handwritten note with a formula: "A + B = C, where A = anything, B = coffee, C = breakfast." This extends the joke by providing the actual "scientific" basis for the discovery -- that any food item, when combined with coffee, qualifies as breakfast. It is a humorous codification of a truth familiar to graduate students and overworked researchers everywhere.