Ed Himelblau is a biologist and a cartoonist
š¬The Biology
The environment affects DNA through a process called epigenetics. What you eat and breath, and even emotional experiences can alter the activity of your genome. What changes is the activity of genes.
Imagine a city after a snowstorm - the buildings and cars are still there, but everything is muffled. Epigenetics is like a snowstorm that blankets a chromosome region āsilencingā the genes there.
Today, we understand that cells add and remove tiny molecules to DNA to change the epigenetic state of genes. In 2013, the process was more mysterious - convenient if someone asked a hard question about your research. (101 words)
āš»The Drawing
Hereās the 2013 original:
I kept most elements from my original drawing - the auditorium chairs, the blank screen in the background, the single spotlight, and the podium.
The characters are basically the same. Iām not sure I improved the nervous expression of the speaker.
The setting is based on my memories of the Center for Biotechnology Lecture Hall at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (where I watched many semianrs in grad school).
The new version of the cartoon was drawn on printer paper with Micron Pens (0.1 and 0.005 mm) and a #2 pencil. I scanned the drawing then used a scan of an ink wash to darken the whole image in Photoshop.