A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?—revised and annotated with brand-new illustrations and answers to important questions you never thought to ask—coming from November 2024. Preorder here!
Movie Science Montage
[[One scientist passes a test tube to another, who's sitting at a machine. They're both wearing lab coats and goggles. Lights and screens are shining, and there's a hamster ball and a Newton's cradle on a shelf behind them.]]
[[There's a glowing sample next to a rat in a cage. One of the scientists is holding a glowing implement; she has another rat in her hand and one on her head. The other scientist is on the phone.]]
Caged Rat: Squeak!
[[One of the scientists pulls levers on another machine, which is shooting some kind of ray downwards a a sample.]]
[[The other scientist is operating a machine with a scope, flasks, coils, and bubbles.]]
Scientist (in panel): Paint flecks from the killer's clothing match an antimatter factory in Belgrade!
Scientist (off panel): Let's go!
Actual Science Montage
[[Two scientists in lab coats and goggles place a sample into a machine. There's a clock on the wall.]]
[[Time has passed.]]
Machine: <<...whirrrrrr...>>
[[Time has passed. One of the scientists has removed his goggles.]]
Machine: <<...whirrrr...bing!>>
[[They examine the sample.]]
Male Scientist: Okay, we've determined there's neither barium nor radium in this sample.
Female Scientist: Probably.
{{Title text: The rat's perturbed; it must sense nanobots! Code grey! We have a Helvetica scenario!}}
xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 3±1 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS at a screen resolution of 1024x1. Please enable your ad blockers, disable high-heat drying, and remove your device from Airplane Mode and set it to Boat Mode. For security reasons, please leave caps lock on while browsing.