#2263: Cicadas

[This comic is laid out in a variation of a regular four-panel comic. One wide panel is overlaid by two smaller panels, which are placed where the second and fourth panels would be. These panels are slightly offset so they extend above the wide panel.]

[Cueball and Ponytail are facing each other across a desk while having a conversation. Cueball is holding up a tablet in his hand while Ponytail is typing at a laptop on the desk.]

Cueball: What can you tell from genome comparison?

Ponytail: I think there’s a duplication on the -

Ponytail: Look out!

[An overlaid panel shows that the air is full of flying cicadas, many of which have landed on Cueball, Ponytail, the laptop, the tablet, and the desk. Ponytail and Cueball have their arms up in a futile attempt to shield themselves from the bugs, with Cueball having put the tablet down on the table.]

Bzzzzzzz

[The cicadas are gone, and Cueball and Ponytail resume their conversation. Cueball has picked up the tablet again]

Ponytail: - a duplication on the gene right before the cleavage site, so the resulting protein -

Ponytail: Look out!

[An overlaid panel shows that the air is again full of flying cicadas, which have once again landed on Cueball, Ponytail, the laptop, the tablet, and the desk. Ponytail and Cueball have raised their arms to shield themselves again.]

Bzzzzzzz

[Caption below the large panel:]

Our genetics work has produced 17-second cicadas, but we’re having a hard time figuring out how.