Molecular Biology Comic a la Far Side (and also a sidebar about degrees of separation in the web-o-sphere)

Alright, it's 2007, and already I'm feeling the soft squeeze of all the different things that need tending to. In fact, there are two comics at the Science Creative Quarterly today that, perhaps to greater extremes, emulate my current mood (i.e. this is what it feels like when you've effectively been away for 2 to 3 weeks and then come back to a deluge of correspondence).

Here's one of two graphics by Lena Webb, and captioned, "Cap-Snatching: What the Mechanism Doesn't Show You..."

Actually, getting pieces like this does a great job of illustrating the wondrous interactivity and community building aspects of the web - it's incredibly powerful in the social context, and particulary in the science communication context. The flowchart, in this case, would look a little like this:

1
Lena submits a piece to McSweeney's for their Convergences Contest

2
Lena is a winner with this great piece about RNA secondary/tertiary structure.

3
I happen to check it out (big fan of Weschler by the way), and mention it here at the World's Fair.

4
Lena somehow finds this "nod" to her work, and becomes one of the presumed handful of people who actually read a bit more of this blog.

5
Lena ends up checking out the Science Creative Quarterly, and apparently likes what she sees.

6
She submits an awesome piece, that not only showcases her talent as an artist in the comic genre, but also provides a bit of commentary on why she does cartoons about molecular entities

7
The piece is accepted and is published today, and at this point, I'm curious what other links will be formed from the SCQ and this blog showcasing it...

That's like less than 10 clicks probably, and a formal collaboration of sorts is formed. It's quite remarkable how this type of media can transform interactions, and makes you wonder generally what the next step in science correspondence is.

Ooh... getting a bit deep there. In any event, go check out the piece - it's great, and, of course, thanks to Lena for playing...