The cartoonist and engineer reveals what percentage of all humans who have ever lived are your ancestors, and what might happen if you pumped pure ammonia into your stomach (don’t)
Physics
12 October 2022
Randall Munroe Adrianne Mathiowetz
Randall Munroe is an engineer, author and cartoonist who is best known for creating the webcomic xkcd. With the tagline “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language”, xkcd covers just about everything, from science and philosophy to pop culture. Munroe has also written several books, including What If? and its recently released sequel, What If? 2, which playfully tackle the strange scientific questions posed by his readers.
Munroe speaks to New Scientist on what draws him to physics, his writing process – and some of his favourite …