The times we’re in, the intense historical novels I’m reading (Mantel, Haratischvili), I was in need of a break and a good chuckle.

Cue the latest from Tom Gauld. In Department of Mind-Blowing Theories, Gauld collects the best of the cartoons he has been producing for New Scientist.

From the repercussions of poor lab policy …

to the solution to the mystery of the missing hand sanitiser.

What about this one?

As zeitgeisty as these may, they are not recent creations. The hand sanitiser cartoon comes from 2015. Nevertheless …

Getting away from my pandemic tinted lenses, I now know that even theoretical particles can have existential crises:

and how to meaningfully text a marine biologist.

My previous encounter with Tom Gauld’s cartoons was literary related, and neither is literature is entirely absent from this collection. Just in case you ever wondered how Dr Frankenstein approached his post-experimental report …

And with that, I off to watch the National Theatre’s production of Frankenstein. More cartoons to come later this week.

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