In Episode 2, the claim-testing gang comes face-to-face with a living organism from another planet! Register to explore the whole course here: https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive?WT.mc_id=Slideshare12202017

1. overwhelmed by questions? bedeviled by doubts? don’t know where to turn
in the search for truth? how can you know? whom do you call? well, here’s
whom ! call the
created and drawn
for the big
history project by
larry gonick
Episode 2
BARREN WORLD
brianna, jesse, and the Claim testers—Andor,
Evy, Vera, and Big Sci—find themselves face
to face with an alien—or is it?

2. zyx!
evy, gather some evidence,
and I, big sci, will appoint
a high-level committee to
study your findings!
Episode 2
BARREN WORLD
who—or
what—is
that?
brianna, jesse, and the Claim testers—Andor,
Evy, Vera, and Big Sci—find themselves face
to face with an alien—or is it?
very
logical,
andor!
i’m going to go
see for myself!
it certainly
looks like
an alien...
it either is an
alien or else it
isn’t, you know...
whoa! check
this out!!!
weird! how can this—
um—vehicle be so
much larger inside
than it is outside?
space warp?
mind warp?
mirrors?
evy, see what you
can find here...
andor, try to make
sense of what­ever
evy digs up... and
Vera, if you have
any ideas, i’d like
to hear them!
zyx!
ok! let’s
all go!!
maybe it isn’t
a vehicle at
all... maybe
it’s a stage
set!
BIG HISTORY PROJECT CLAIM TESTERS: EPISODE 2: BARREN WORLD 2

3. look out
the window!!!
somebody do
something!
this may not be a good time to follow
your intuition, vera! no one here knows
how to operate the controls of this
machine. “doing something” could have
catastrophic effects. logically, it’s
best to do nothing and go along for
the ride!
um... I don’t
think it’s a
stage set...
um... guys... the
door is closing
behind us...
this doesn’t feel
right! we’re in
danger!
how can you be
sure without
evidence, vera?
ak!
ootah!
the momentum of the
vessel surrounding us
is undergoing a SUDDEN
change!
you have to admit, there
could be other reasons:
maybe the door was closed
to keep insects out—whoa!
I can just tell, that’s all!
did we
lose them?
I think
so...
what a
relief!
more rapid changes
in momentum!
a relief, brianna?
they might have
rescued us!
shooting first and
rescuing later doesn’t
seem logical, though!
ulp! we’re
approaching an
alien planet...
oof!
consistent
with a zigzag
flight path!
look! we’re
being shot at!
BIG HISTORY PROJECT CLAIM TESTERS: EPISODE 2: BARREN WORLD 3

4. it looks
pretty
barren and
lifeless!
all our food comes
from living things,
after all!
I hope the planet isn’t
as barren and lifeless
as this refrigerator,
because i’m hungry!
and why
is that,
andor?
so... is any life out
there, or not?``
do you think
there’s any­
thing to eat—
ulp—outside?
only if this
planet sup­
ports life,
brianna!
probably
not...
out of the planets with the right
climate, only a frac­tion have the
right chemicals to make life... and
out of those planets, only a
fraction actually go on to generate
life... so you see...
if you work out the arith­metic, only
a very small per­centage of planets
support life! we’ve probably landed
on a barren world, because that’s
what’s out there, mostly!
andor, is this
like the drake
equation? i’ve
read about that!
think of it this way: start
with the total number of
stars in the galaxy... only
some of those stars have
planets... only a small
fraction of those planets
are the right distance from
their star to have conditions
friendly to life...
BIG HISTORY PROJECT CLAIM TESTERS: EPISODE 2: BARREN WORLD 4

5. yes, similar, except that
the drake equation calcu­
lates the fraction of
planets with intelligent
life. that’s an even
smaller percentage!
but andor, you’re talking
about all the planets in
the milky way galaxy!
we want to know about
this world right here!
wherever here is...
something tells
me it’s worth
taking a look...
it would make sense to
choose a planet with
food, not just land­
some­where at random!
vera, any
opinion?
yeah! after
all, doesn’t
the alien
have to eat
too?
great! i’ll
try to find
evidence of
life! um...
like what?
signs of water!
clouds! erosion!
gul­leys! streams!
lakes!
take the temperature!
study the chemistry of
the air and soil!
specifically, try to find carbon, hydro­
gen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus,
and sulfur—the elements of life—and
temperatures between 0
0
and 100
0
centigrade, at which water is liquid!
that sounds like the perfect “goldi­­
locks conditions” we have on earth!
but couldn’t there be some weird kind
of life on a very different planet?
we’ll see,
I guess...
zyx!
and evy can analyze its
chemical composition!
breaking out my
spectrometer!
hey,
what’s
this?
he’s
lowering
a bucket...
great! now we can
scoop up a sample
from the surface!
An instrument that measures
the light emitted when
heating a test material. The
resulting color spectrum
will tell us exactly what
elements are present!
what’s that?
BIG HISTORY PROJECT CLAIM TESTERS: EPISODE 2: BARREN WORLD 5

6. to be continued...
logically, either
we’re about to be
rescued, or we’re in
serious trouble...
and by the
way, i’m a she,
not a he...
okay, let’s
have it—what?
here! eat some
of this!
eat! it won’t
hurt you!
how do we know it’s
OK? aside from your
word, that is!
well, I do now,
after listen­ing to
all of you for hours
and hours! you’re a
pretty talkative
bunch, you know?
you speak
english??!!
feel free to
test it in any
way you like!
whoa! by the
vibrating
voltmeters
of m.I.T.!
after we escaped from the
cygnusian police cruiser,
I chose to hide on a life-
bearing planet. like you, I
have to eat life forms! but
I chose a world with no
intelligent life, because
I didn’t want anyone to
see us and report us...
while you do, i’ll fill you in... I
am zyx-27, a fugitive from planet
3 of cygnus epsilon... and i’m not
a crim­inal, or at least I haven’t
done anything wrong...
unfortunately, they
seem to have found
us anyway...
look at
’em all!
amazing! it has the
exact same molec­
ular structure as
fried chicken!
BIG HISTORY PROJECT CLAIM TESTERS: EPISODE 2: BARREN WORLD 6