2010-12-24
Explanation
This comic is a riff on the classic story trope of a ghostly mentor appearing to help a struggling student, except here the ghost is physicist John Bardeen. Bardeen introduces himself and lists his extraordinary accomplishments -- winning two Nobel Prizes in Physics, inventing the transistor, and developing the fundamental theory of superconductivity (BCS theory). Despite these monumental contributions to modern technology, the student is completely unimpressed and keeps asking for Einstein or Feynman instead.
The joke satirizes how scientific fame is often driven by personality and media presence rather than actual contributions. Bardeen, despite arguably having a greater direct impact on everyday life through the transistor, is virtually unknown to the general public compared to Einstein (famous hair, iconic image) and Feynman (famous raconteur and pop-science personality). The student even claims Einstein "invented awesome hair" and Feynman "invented boobs," reducing these scientists to their pop-culture caricatures. In the final panel, Bardeen gives up and summons Feynman, who immediately asks for the student's "hot sister" -- a reference to Feynman's well-known reputation as a womanizer. The comic highlights how unfairly scientific legacy is distributed based on charisma rather than achievement.