Graphic Novel Review: The Phantom Scientist by Robin Cousin

Posted on June 27, 2024 at 6:30 am by Gene Ambaum

The Phantom Scientist by Robin Cousin. Translated by Edward Gauvin. MIT Press, 2023. 9780262047869. 125pp.

This graphic novel opens with the arrival of Sorokin at the 4th Institute for the Study of Complex and Dynamic Systems. The armed clean-up crew that has just finished with the 3rd Institute is leaving the site, and one of the masked men hands things over to him. Sorokin watches a video from the previous director who explains the Institute a bit, from the type of researchers it includes to the fact that the system tends toward entropy and chaos in its last year, when results are expected. Sorokin’s role is to slow the spread of chaos at the end of the 4th Institute during its final year.

Then on the next page, the book jumps forward six years, to the arrival of the final researcher, Stéphane, whose field is morphogenesis. He is offered a lab plus whatever resources he needs. On the way to his lab he meets two others who live in his building, Louise (linguistics) and Vilhelm (he seems to be modeling the Institute itself). As Louise gives him a tour, a lone scientist in the woods observes them. He’s the so-called Phantom Scientist of the title, a man supposedly living in their building (though he’s never been seen), a researcher looking into the mathematical problem of P vs. NP.

It all makes for a decent mystery full of drawings that I loved, and it had me searching and reading scientific terms. After finishing the book I was able to send a cryptic (to me anyway) text to the smartest math person I know, which will (I hope) lead me to a deeper understanding of P vs. NP next time we talk. If not, at least I’ll have a better sense of how much my brain has petrified in recent years.

Worth noting: There’s some cool stuff on plants and origami and much more in here.