The creator of 'XKCD' is working on high school textbooks

XKCD's Randall Munroe has done a good job of simplifying scientific and technical concepts through his comics, so it only makes sense that he would turn his attention to full-on education, doesn't it? Sure enough, that's about to happen. Thanks to the right people at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt seeing his work, Munroe will integrate segments of his book Thing Explainer (which explains concepts using the 1,000 most-used English words) into high school biology, chemistry and physics textbooks arriving this summer. Yes, the usual dry diagrams will be accompanied by Munroe's signature stick figures discussing "thinking bags" (brains) and "heavy metal power buildings" (nuclear reactors).

There's more in the works. The publisher is also launching science programs for the 2017-2018 school year that will include both brand new content and digitally animated versions of Thing Explainer pieces. Frankly, you might be missing out on something special if you're already past high school -- it's not often that an internet icon can make science accessible and liven up some dull homework.