We’ve all seen the movies. A brilliant, beautiful, young scientist ponders one of the mysteries of the universe for 8 minutes or so, musses her hair just a little, opens her top button, then gets a brainstorm, builds a whose-a-ma-jiggy with a big name, and saves the day. Real science, however, is less glamorous and a whole lot less instant. Think trial and error, with an emphasis on error. Enter illustrator Jim Jourdane, whose hilarious art brings to light the less glamorous side of science.

Getting his stories from scientists through the #fieldworkfail hashtag on Twitter, Jourdane brilliantly celebrates the funnier side of science.

“I can find dozens of great stories from biologists, geologists, volcanologists, etc. Once I heard about the hashtag, I was very motivated to illustrate the stories. When I started, I received so [much] positive feedback from fieldwork scientists that it persuaded me to keep going.

“I believe that besides being fun and entertaining stories, these stories have the power to humanize science and educate the general public. These illustrations can be a good gateway to discover the way scientists work.” -Jim Jourdane

Like what you see? Then go check out his book on Kickstarter. Enjoy!

All images property of Jim Jourdane/FieldworkFail.com.