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Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Planetary Science
The research was overseen by the Institutional Review Board, which is what I named my surfboard.
Title text: The research was overseen by the Institutional Review Board, which is what I named my surfboard.

Explanation

This is presented as a scientific article in which astronomers claim to have discovered "signs of 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.

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

[A journal entry is shown, with 3 sections of blurred text, and 2 pictures - On on the top-right showing Jill and Kidball playing at the beach - Jill running, Cueball building a sandcastle, while Cueball and Megan under an umbrella watching them, and another at the bottom-left showing the sea.]
[Title of journal article:] Evidence of liquid water on the surface of a terrestrial planet in the habitable zone
[caption below text:] Planetary science journals have asked astronomers to please stop submitting their vacation photos.

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