Funding or article?

The amount of funding received by a laboratory is closely related to the number of published articles. More funding yields more articles, and more articles lead to more funding in return. However, some laboratories get relatively more funding, and others publish relatively more articles. Applicants to graduate schools should consider which type of laboratory would be more helpful for them.

Scientists who seek out money and opportunities to publish articles are selfish, so they tend to be blamed. However, unless they are selfish, their scientific research will not materialize. In my case, egoism is the source of not only grants and articles, but also cartoons, like this episode.

Gutenberg developed a system of movable metal type in Mainz, which is located next to Frankfurt, Germany. Frankfurt has always been the center of commerce and trade in Europe. Thanks to this, Gutenberg’s metal type spread quickly and eventually triggered the information revolution. Where the invention took place is as important as what the invention actually was.

For me, drawing comics is easier than writing articles. That is because drawing comics is my hobby and writing articles is my job. I draw easy comics first, and then write difficult articles later if I do not have any comics left to draw. A clear and natural distinction spontaneously emerges between articlewriting months and comic-drawing months.

Originally, the term “invisible hand” referred to the system that automatically determines wages and product prices among CEOs, employees, and consumers. This is a very important theoretical aspect of capitalism. Anyways, like the content of the cartoon, professors with lots of funding sources and papers can calmly wait for graduate students to join their labs, while professors with few cannot do so. In this sense, scientific labs follow the rules of capitalism.