Some thoughts on drawing the course on An inclusive history of science communication Argha Manna Communicating science through cartoons and illustrations has its own narrative style. Despite having any strict manifesto, science cartoonists often use visual metaphors to represent complex scientific results, experimental data and interpretations. Those simple yet impactful metaphorical drawings make the science illustrations separate from the figures published in academic journals, making the complex scientific findings enjoyable to common people. Illustrations, cartoons, comics and other possib ..read more

A couple of months ago I discussed with Gayathri Vaidyanathan, from Scroll and Leaves about creating art during Covid-19, and the Great Bengal Famine.’ In my free Chatroom Podcast we discussed ‘making comics on the Bengal Famine, 1770 in collaboration with Debkumar Mitra (funded by the Famine Tales from India and Britain project) and other artworks, behind-the-process and inspirations.’ Listen to the podcast here. This blog post is based on that podcast narrating behind the process of drawing the history of the Great Bengal Famine, 1770. Artwork: Argha Manna and Debkumar Mitra Cover Image: Deb ..read more

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In 1989, Professor Charles Rosenberg published a seminal paper in the American Academy of Arts & Science journal—What is an Epidemic? AIDS in Historical Perspective. Prof. Rosenberg mentioned in the paper that epidemics and pandemics could be extraordinary sampling devices for Social Scientists and Historians. Structural analysis of such events can reveal some fundamental behaviours of a society. He proposed that as a social phenomenon, an epidemic has a dramaturgic form. While analyzing the form, I’ve found that an epidemic or a pandemic always begins with a small act, ignorance! In this ..read more

Covid-19 appears to spread mostly through respiratory droplets. But what is a droplet and how can droplets spread diseases? Here is a short graphic essay to finding out the answers.  Pathogenic respiratory droplets mostly created by spitting, sneezing and coughing in public. But what happens when someone spit? Here is the answer through visuals. All the visuals have been created following the fascinating researches done by Lydia Bourouiba and group, Fluid Dynamics Lab Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The comics has been published as a graphic essay in Annals of Internal Medic ..read more

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This essay in comics has been published in Club Sci Wri. The main article is written by Ananya Sen, edited by Pauravi Sindhe and Roopsha Sengupta.  The illustrator is Arghya Manna (Drawing History of Science). One can find the main post here. Before the discovery of the vaccine and when the actual scientific reason behind the smallpox outbreak was unknown, people from almost every continent used to consider the diseases like smallpox as an act of evil. Henceforth,  Gods or good spirits were imagined to fight against the evil of smallpox. Even in the 21st Century such believe ha ..read more

  Rajeshwari Chatterjee (1922 – 2010). Known for her significant contributions to the field of #microwave & antennae engineering . Rajeshwari was born to an upper class Indian family which included her social activist grandmother, who started an accelerated school to promote women’s education. She attended this school, & encouraged by her grandmother, pursued higher education, completing her BSc (1939) & MSc (1942) in Math. In 1943, she applied to the Indian Institute for Science (IISc)& after extensive debate about a female candidate, she was granted a res ..read more