Science Comic: Through the Looking Glass - Reflections of Science in Luxembourg

THROUGH
THE LOOKING GLASS
Reflections of science in Luxembourg

LUXEMBOURG
IS A LAND OF SCIENCE
Artificial intelligence, biomedical and materials sciences, mathematics...
The science community in Luxembourg is constantly bubbling up
with new ideas! But who really knows what scientists are searching
for, what their daily lives look like and where to find them?
Twenty-two PhD candidates of the University of Luxembourg have
joined forces to help future generations picture the opportunities
brought by science.
These students from the Doctoral School in Science and Engineering
(DSSE) are going beyond their daily research tasks by learning to
communicate on difficult topics. They’re sharing their enthusiasm
by helping script the following seven illustrated tales. We hope these
seven ”reflections of science” will help ensure a bright future for
science in Luxembourg!
Bruno Teheux
Mathematics Research Unit (RMATH)
University of Luxembourg

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
When will robots replace taxi drivers?
From the Big Bang to the lab
Using "mini-brains" to investigate
Parkinson’s disease
When biomedical and computer
sciences meet
Fighting cancer in the Luxembourg
Institute of Health
Number theory in the past, present
and future
The maths behind postal deliveries
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
The storytellers 18

4
1. When will robots replace taxi drivers?

5

6
2. From the Big Bang to the lab

7

3. Using "mini-brains" to investigate Parkinson’s disease
*
Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine
8

9

10
4. When biomedical and computer sciences meet

11

12
5. Fighting cancer in the Luxembourg Institute of Health

13

14
6. Number theory in the past, present and future

15

16
7. The maths behind postal deliveries

17

THE STORYTELLERS
1. When will robots replace taxi drivers?
Jérémie Dauphin
Ali Farjami
Arianna Rossi
We are Arianna, Ali and Jérémie, PhD students at the University
of Luxembourg. Through our work in Computer Science, we
hope to help increase the quality of life of human users via
automated processes in machines. We believe that using comics
to address scientific issues is an attractive way to reach a larger
audience and hope our story will inspire many students.
Illustrator: Joséphine Herbelin —
www.cargocollective.com/josephineherbelin
2. From the Big Bang to the lab
Kishor Acharya
Benjamin Dey
Vasu Prasad
Prasadam
Hi! We are Kishor, Benjamin and Vasu, PhD students working
at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST).
We would like to call ourselves as material scientists/science
enthusiasts, our aim is to design new materials and study
their properties – our findings will help to advance the latest
technology. In this comic, we tried to show our day-to-day life
with the fictional story. Enjoy!
Illustrator: Héloïse Chochois —
www.heloisechochois.tumblr.com
3. Using "mini-brains" to investigate Parkinson’s disease
Isabel Rosety
Sònia Sabaté Soler
Lisa Smits
We are Sònia, Isabel and Lisa and currently PhD students at the
Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB). The three
of us are studying and working together in a laboratory and
we are researching in the field of brain biology. We believe that
this topic is very fascinating and we are proud to be part of the
scientific community in Luxembourg. With this comic, we hope
that we are able to convince some curious minds to join us in the
world of science!
Illustrator: Julien Flamand —
www.julienflamand.com
4. When biomedical and computer sciences meet
Yahaya Abubakar
Yabo
Romain Tching
Yue Zhang
We are Yahaya, Yue and Romain. We came from different
parts of the world to work in Luxembourg on Bioinformatics,
the science at the border between Biology, Computer Science
and Mathematics. It’s a little bit complicated, so we think using
comics like this is a great idea to simplify scientific concepts
and get people interested in this incredible topic!
Illustrator: Vincent Sorel —
www.cargocollective.com/vincent-sorel
18

5. Fighting cancer in the Luxembourg Institute of Health
Andrés Cano Galiano
Lia Pinto
Mohamad Sarmini
We are Lia, Mohamad and Andrés, three PhD students from
Italy, Syria and Spain, respectively. We are all working at the
Luxembourg Institute of Health, Department of Oncology.
We are in a research group called NorLux and we are studying
brain tumor, each of us focusing on different aspects of the
disease: DNA repair, resistance to chemotherapy and metabolism.
Illustrator: Simon Géliot —
www.simongeliot.overblog.com
6. Number theory in the past, present and future
Daniel Mamo
Filippo Mazzoli
Emiliano Torti
Sebastiano Tronto
We are Daniel, Emiliano, Filippo, and Sebastiano. We are PhD
students in Mathematics at the University of Luxembourg.
Three of us work in number theory, and for our comic we
have chosen to describe our “everyday life” as mathematics
students by talking about a famous result in this area: Fermat’s
last theorem. Our main intention is to transmit our fascination
for challenging mathematical questions like this, which is
one of the main reasons that led us to continue our academic
career. The characters are fictional, but the senior member is
inspired by one of our Professors, Antonella Perucca from the
Mathematics Research Unit.
Illustrator: Mathieu Ughetti —
www.mathieuughetti.com
7. The maths behind postal deliveries
Jim Barthel
Luca Notarnicola
Pietro Sgobba
We are Jim, Luca and Pietro. We graduated in Mathematics
and are now doing our PhD in the fields of computer science,
cryptography and number theory, respectively. Aside doing
research, we take part in outreach activities. Showing to the
general public the problem-solving nature of Mathematics is
an important goal for us. We believe that this comic is an innovative
way to reach future mathematicians.
Illustrator: Manuel Lieffroy —
www.manuellieffroy.blogspot.com
WITH THE HELP OF...
Serge Haan, Dov Gabbay, Leon van der Torre,
Antonella Perucca, Nicole Paschek and Hugo Parlier
(University of Luxembourg)
Nathalie Valle & Patrick Choquet
(Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology)
Francisco Azuaje (Luxembourg Institute of Health)
SCENARISTS
All the members of the groups listed above
Bruno Teheux and Oliver Glassl
(University of Luxembourg)
Charles Leveugle (Agence 9 - Une bulle en plus)
DRAWINGS & DESIGN
Agence 9 - Une bulle en plus - agence9.com
19

You can also download these comics on:
descom.uni.lu
Special thanks:
Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST),
Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH),
the Mathematics Research Unit (RMATH) and the Computer Science
and Communications Research Unit (CSC) of the University of Luxembourg.
DSSE
DOCTORAL SCHOOL
IN SCIENCE AND
ENGINEERING
DESCOM
DOCTORAL EDUCATION
IN SCIENCE
COMMUNICATION
Supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR)