explain xkcd:Sandbox
Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!
We have an explanation for all 3264 xkcd comics,
and only 43
(1.3%) are incomplete. Help us finish them!
Latest comic
| Planetary Science |
 Title text: The research was overseen by the Institutional Review Board, which is what I named my surfboard. |
Explanation
|
This is incomplete: This comic was found on a planet with internet on it! If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
This comic is presented as a scientific article in which astronomers claim to have discovered "evidence for liquid water on the surface of a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone" -- however, as the accompanying photos (four people on a beach, of whom two are sitting under an umbrella and one is making sand castles) show, the planet in question is Earth. This would not be considered a noteworthy discovery.[citation needed] Finding other planets that have liquid water is a notable result, as water is necessary to support Earth-like life, so a planet with water could possibly have life on it. However, we already know about life on Earth existing,[citation needed] so this article is hardly useful or practical.
There is value in using Earth as an example of a planet in a habitable zone, such as testing life-detection experiments in remote inhospitable environments or as a proxy for future astronomical observations, but not in-situ photographic investigation. Maybe the astronomers should have brought their spectrometer on vacation.
An institutional review board is a committee of researchers which ensures that research carried out at their institution is ethical. In the title text, this is referenced to be the literal name of a surfboard, which is a board used for the recreational activity of surfing, not serious academic activities. Presumably one of the researchers used this as an excuse to post their pictures of a surfing holiday. Of course, 'the Institutional Review Board' is a very strange name for a surfboard,[citation needed] and its only purpose would be for this (somewhat bad) excuse.
Transcript
|
This is one of 25 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page! |
- [An article from a journal is shown.]
- [Title of journal article:] Evidence for Liquid Water on the Surface of a Terrestrial Planet in the Habitable Zone
- [Below the title are four lines of blurred text presumably representing the name of the author or authors and their affiliations. Below that, the text of the article is blurred, displayed in two columns. There are three sections of blurred text each with a blurred boldface heading. Two pictures are included amid the blurred text. The picture in the left column shows the sea running alongside a beach. The picture in the right column shows Jill and Kidball playing at the beach, with Jill running and Kidball building a sandcastle, while Cueball and Megan are sitting under a beach umbrella watching them.]
- [Caption below the article:]
- Planetary science journals have asked astronomers to please stop submitting their vacation photos.
Add comment 
Create topic (use sparingly) 
Refresh Discussion
Make changes, try things out, or just have fun with the wiki here! Just leave everything above the line alone, please.
This is a test. PoolloverNathan[stalk the blue seas] 20:48, 16 March 2021 (UTC)
- This is not. —While False (museum | talk | contributions | logs | rights | printable version | page information | what links there | related changes | Google search | current time: 21:25) 18:38, 17 November 2022 (UTC)
- A foreign student asked me to help fight against his math teacher. That was unusual. He was in that class for just a couple of weeks. The teacher's phone number was sent to me. The student asked me to spam-call the teacher. 172.71.155.55 22:58, 18 September 2023 (UTC)
here i'm just messing around in html, ignore this
furhhfghure guyrburgryhuyvfr "rvhru"
interesting way of writing quotations xd
- hmmm this one of putting "<p>" in a line break will come in handy for when i want it to start at the same place than the first line
edit: da hek did that "</div>" come from An user who has no account yet (talk) 14:14, 13 October 2023 (UTC)
hi uh its hard to get here.
is this a reference to undocumented feature??? hmm... this is interesting.
108.162.241.216 02:05, 23 November 2023 (UTC)
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
|
|
Soup |
|---|
yum yum [citation needed]
Hiuiedeixgeyceiyedhcdiedcve {{trout}}
This is the leaderboard:Last 7 days (Top 50) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
<a href=" [AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING][tab] "Cancel the meeting! Our cover is blown."> More testing: hello doesthiswork (yesitdoes) This isn't a good name (talk) 22:44, 28 January 2026 (UTC)
hi 164.58.172.158 14:21, 23 February 2026 (UTC)
What is this?????????????????????? King Pando (talk) 04:25, 10 March 2026 (UTC)
Hello 107.1.219.44 19:29, 29 April 2026 (UTC) Add commentIs this out of date? .
New here?
Last 7 days (Top 10) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at explain xkcd. Feel free to sign up for an account and contribute to the wiki! We need explanations for comics, characters, themes and everything in between. If it is referenced in an xkcd web comic, it should be here.
- If you're new to wiki editing, see the explain xkcd:Editor FAQ for a specific guidance to this Wiki and the more general help on how to edit wiki pages. There's also a handy wikicode cheatsheet.
- Discussion about the wiki itself happens at the Community portal.
- You can browse the comics from List of all comics or by navigating the category tree at Category:Comics.
- There are incomplete explanations listed here. Feel free to help out by expanding them!
Rules
Don't be a jerk!
There are a lot of comics that don't have set-in-stone explanations; feel free to put multiple interpretations in the wiki page for each comic.
If you want to talk about a specific comic, use its discussion page.
Please only submit material directly related to (and helping everyone better understand) xkcd... and of course only submit material that can legally be posted (and freely edited). Off-topic or other inappropriate content is subject to removal or modification at admin discretion, and users who repeatedly post such content will be blocked.
If you need assistance from an admin, post a message to the Admin requests board.
