page_title: Randall Munroe
section_title: Other projects
hierarchical_section_title: Randall Munroe / Career / Other projects
caption_attribution_description: English&#58; Radiation Dose Chart by Randall Munroe as part of the webcomic xkcd. In response to concerns about the radioactivity released by the en:Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster:Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, and to remedy what he described as "confusing" reporting on radiation levels in the media, Munroe created a chart of comparative radiation exposure levels. The chart was rapidly adopted by print and online journalists in several countries, including being linked to by online writers for The Guardian&#91;1&#93; and The New York Times.&#91;2&#93; As a result of requests for permission to reprint the chart and to translate it into Japanese, Munroe placed it in the public domain, but requested that his non-expert status should be clearly stated in any reprinting.&#91;3&#93; ↑ Monbiot, George&#32;(2011-03-21).&#32;"Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power". The Guardian. ↑ Revkin, Andrew&#32;(2011-03-23).&#32;"The 'Dread to Risk' Ratio on Radiation and other Discontents". Dot Earth blog.&#32;The New York Times. ↑ Munroe, Randall.&#32;Radiation Chart.&#32;xkcd.com. Français&#58; Graphique des doses radioactives par xkcd
context_page_description: Randall Patrick Munroe is an American cartoonist, author, engineer, and the creator of the webcomic xkcd. He and the webcomic have developed a large fanbase, and shortly after graduating from college, he became a professional webcomic artist.
context_section_description: Munroe is the creator of the now defunct websites "The Funniest", "The Cutest", and "The Fairest", each of which presents users with two options and asks them to choose one over the other.
  In January 2008, Munroe developed an open-source chat moderation script named "Robot9000". Originally developed to moderate one of Munroe's xkcd-related IRC channels, the software's algorithm attempts to prevent repetition in IRC channels by temporarily muting users who send messages that are identical to a message that has been sent to the channel before. If users continue to send unoriginal messages, Robot9000 mutes the user for a longer period, quadrupling for each unoriginal message the user sends to the channel. Shortly after Munroe's blog post about the script went live, 4chan administrator Christopher Poole adapted the script to moderate the site's experimental /r9k/ board. Twitch offers Robot9000 ("r9k mode") as an optional feature for broadcasters and moderators to use in their channels' chat boxes.
  In October 2008, The New Yorker magazine online published an interview and "Cartoon Off" between Munroe and Farley Katz, in which each cartoonist drew a series of four humorous cartoons.
  Munroe has a blog entitled What If?, where he has answered questions sent in by fans of his comics. These questions are usually absurd and related to math or physics, and he explains them using both his knowledge and various academic sources. In 2014, he published a collection of some of the responses, as well as a few new ones and some rejected questions, in a book entitled What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. Starting in November 2019, Munroe began writing a monthly column in the New York Times titled Good Question, answering user submitted questions in the same style as What If. 
  In response to concerns about the radioactivity released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, and to remedy what he described as "confusing" reporting on radiation levels in the media, Munroe created a radiation chart of comparative radiation exposure levels. The chart was rapidly adopted by print and online journalists in several countries, including being linked to by online writers for The Guardian, and The New York Times. As a result of requests for permission to reprint the chart and to translate it into Japanese, Munroe placed it in the public domain, but requested that his non-expert status should be clearly stated in any reprinting.
  Munroe published an xkcd-style comic on scientific publishing and open access in Science in October 2013.
  Munroe's book Thing Explainer, announced in May 2015 and published late that year, explains concepts using only the 1,000 most common English words. The book's publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, saw these illustrations as potentially useful for textbooks, and announced in March 2016 that the next editions of their high school-level chemistry, biology, and physics textbooks will include selected drawings and accompanying text from Thing Explainer.
  In February 2019, Munroe announced his upcoming book How To, which was released in September of that year.
caption: Various doses of radioactivity in sieverts, ranging from negligible to lethal
exif: {}