This week we were delighted to be joined by the wonderful Aśka (pronounced 'Ash-ka'; she/they): award-winning comics maker, visual storyteller, science communicator and former quantum physicist, whose career is a glorious collision of two worlds that rarely meet. Before the drawing board, Aśka earned a first-class honours degree in physics (complete with a university medal) and spent several years in quantum optics labs across Australia, Germany and Denmark, work she describes as tickling atoms until they give up their secrets and glow fluorescent green.
Somewhere along the way she swapped the lab for the page, and has since published more than a dozen books and graphic novels, spent seven years touring Western Australia as a travelling science presenter with Scitech, and now teaches students of all ages how to "write with pictures". Their latest young adult graphic novel, The Friendship Paradox, draws all these threads together in the story of Dash, who tries to use the laws of physics to make sense of other people. It’s a stunning book about science, but even more about friendship, difference and self-acceptance.
Join us for a wonderful conversation about the leap from quantum optics to comics, why pictures sit unfairly at the bottom of our communication hierarchy, what years on the road taught Aśka about making science feel personal, and her lovely advice to pick up a concept and roll it around in your hands until you find a surprising new way in.
You can connect with Aśka and learn more about their work here:
Aśka's website: askastorytelling.com
The Friendship Paradox (Allen & Unwin): https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/A%C5%9Bka-Friendship-Paradox-9781761181689, a teaser of the book
The Cosmic Adventures of Alice and Bob: a free middle-grade comic Aśka co-created about research and searching in science
Qublings – Quantum Siblings, an award-winning comic about quantum entanglement: askastorytelling.com/short-comics
Aśka's blog post on science communication through pictures: askastorytelling.com/musings
Non-fiction middle-grade books Aśka has illustrated: Behind the Screens and How to Save the Whole Blinkin' Planet
Instagram: @askastorytelling