No Starch Press

"The Manga Guide to the Universe" surveys the cosmos in comics.

Can you really learn relativity from a comic book? The Japanese have been using manga for decades to teach complex subjects, and now Americans are doing it too.

No Starch Press, a San Francisco publishing house, puts out a whole line of manga-style books on math and science, picked up from the original Japanese and translated for the American market. Yes, there's a "Manga Guide to Relativity," as well as calculus, linear algebra, biochemistry and other head-banging subjects.

The plot lines may sound sappy to grown-ups. Usually they involve a cute schoolgirl or schoolboy who's challenged by an equally cute teacher to master a seemingly impenetrable subject. But Bill Pollock, the founder and president of No Starch Press, says the books get the job done, especially for students who are at a crucial age for math and science education.

"We're not out to publish the best manga ever," Pollock told me. "The manga is a vehicle."

Educational comics are nothing new, of course: Classics Illustrated, for example, was delivering comic-book versions of English lit and science class back in the '50s. (I still get the heebie-jeebies when I recall the Classics Illustrated version of "Jane Eyre" that sat in the comic-book box at Grandma's house.) More recently, cartoonist Larry Gonick has been using the comic-book format to explain subjects ranging from chemistry to physics to sex. This year, one of the items on my holiday book list is "Feynman," a graphic-novel biography of the bongo-playing physicist.

But manga books come from a different cultural tradition — the same tradition that spawned Pokemon, Hello Kitty and other Japanese imports that American kids have grown up with. In Japan, there's a manga subgenre ("gakushu manga") that is completely focused on education. These books, which range around 200 pages in length, are the ones that have been adapted into English-language "manga guides."

Japanese researchers have reported that manga books can deliver information in a shorter time and make a stronger impression than conventional textbooks. "Manga's textual hybridity is utilized to promote the readers' effective learning, as verbal and iconographic tests place multiple layers of information in context and project a focused content," Satsuki Murakami and Mio Bryce wrote in the International Journal of the Humanities.

Masaharu Takemura, Kikuyaro, Office Sawa

Panels from "The Manga Guide to Biochemistry" delve into ribosomes and their role in the cell.

"I look at it as a lecture in a book," Pollock said. "It's as if you're in there learning together with this cartoon character."

The lecture can be tough sledding at times. There's no easy way to have a cartoon character utter dialogue like this: "A Lineweaver-Burk reciprocal plot is created by ... finding reciprocals for all the numeric values on the horizontal and vertical axes!" But Pollock says he's seen the manga technique work, particularly for teenage girls, who tend to lag behind teenage boys when it comes to interest in math and science.

"I've always liked the idea of exposing people to something exciting, and higher math is exciting," he said.

In the past few days, there's been a debate percolating over how the genders are portrayed in science education — as seen, for example, in the marketing of "science kits for girls" that focus on perfumery, cosmetics and spa care. Some have raised concerns about manga as well, in part because of the short skirts and ditzy demeanor sometimes exhibited by the female characters. (To be fair, manga boys can be just as ditzy as the girls.)

"Some people think manga is sexist," Pollock said. "The reality is, I've had multiple parents come to me and tell me that their daughters love the books and now they're getting into math and science. ... We may look at things one way as adults — but for kids, it totally works."

STEM education — that is, education in science, technology, engineering and math — has been a hot topic lately. What totally works for you? Do comic books fit into the equation? Whether you're a student or a teacher, a parent or just an interested grown-up, feel free to weigh in with your comics ... er, comments ... below.

More about science-minded comics:

• The lighter side of lab life
• Feed your inner geek with xkcd
• Shuttle love from Red and Rover
• Sci-ence: If you wish to break an apple pie from scratch ...

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Lemelson-MIT Program

Students at Lynden High School are working on a self-balancing trike for disabled bike riders.

What do a self-balancing trike, an emergency water filtration system and a virtual cane that senses obstacles such as overhangs and branches have in common?

They're all inventions found in the musty halls of high school science fairs, only these projects have some oomph behind them in the form of funding and mentors that could make them a hit in the real world.

That trike, for example, makes the joy of riding around town on what look like lawn chairs on three wheels accessible to people with physical limitations, according to the team behind it at Lynden High School in Lynden, Wash.

The concept is a suspension system that controls the stability of the trike, the group explains in a note relayed to me Wednesday from the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam initiative.

"At a stop, the trike will be very stable (no lean available). As the rider's balance and skill level increase, the trike will have the capability to lean up to 20 degrees," the note reads. 

Leaning allows steering of the trike. The stability suspension system would run about $700 and could be adapted to fit most recumbent bikes.

Lemelson-MIT Program

Students at Northeast High School in Oakland Park, Fla., are working on a water filtration system for disaster relief in the tropics.

The project was one of 16 chosen this year by the initiative to receive up to $10,000 in grant funding and support from real-world inventors in industry and academia. Grantees were announced Wednesday.

The water filtration system uses a filter made of locally available materials such as sand, bamboo, cotton, coconut husk and palm bark, and can provide up to 20 liters of filtered water an hour, stored in a 200-liter tank.

The system should reduce the risk of water-borne bacteria such as E. coli, note the inventors at Northeast High School in Oakland Park, Fla. 

"It can accommodate up to 50 people with drinking water (at a rate of four liters per person) as well as ten people with showers (at a rate of 20 liters per person) in any 15-hour period," according to the team.

That cane, an invention selected in 2009 and given continuing funding in 2010, could "help blind/visually impaired individuals navigate their environments safely and confidently," notes the team at The Bromfield School in Harvard, Mass.

Lemelson-MIT Program

Students at West Salem High School are working on a pressure sensitive grip for writing utensils.

It uses distance-sensing technology to gather information on its surroundings and relays it to the user through audio and tactile feedback such as vibrations. The cane detects walls and stairways like a conventional cane, but it also picks up on things like a branch that could whack a head.

A team of inventors at West Salem High School in Oregon got continuing funding this year for a pressure-sensitive grip for writing utensils that "will help teach the students not to press or squeeze too hard while writing to prevent poor writing habits that can cause muscle injury," the team notes.

For the full list of this year's participants and more information about InvenTeam initiative, check out the Lemelson-MIT Program.

More on innovation and high school science:

• How inventive is the next generation?
• 'Humanized mouse' among student science prizes
• 7 award-winning innovations
• How America might invent the future