One-person case studies are actually pretty popular in the medical field. One of the interesting ones for neuroscience is the case study of HM who had a severe form of amnesia after bilateral medial temporal lobe surgery. These are the sorts of studies that you don’t want to be able to find a large population for.

In student research projects it’s very common to have little or no money to reimburse participants. Many of these studies run on the offers of tea or baked goods as incentives to draw in volunteers. Some volunteers are happier about this than others.

Christmas-themed research is relatively popular. The BMJ has a Christmas issue each year, covering such topics as Rudolph’s red nose to whether Santa really keeps a naughty-or-nice list.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far, we’re still a new comic, but all the kind words and feedback really help us to continue. And if you’re an academic reading this, stop working over the holidays!