They discovered that when a famine was able to trigger an effect was different for the grandmother than the grandfather. The grandmother appeared susceptible while she herself was still in the womb, while the grandfather was affected just before puberty.

And the timing of this sensitive period was telling us that it was tied in with the formation of the eggs and the sperm.

This was critical, because now they knew how it was happening. Environmental information was being imprinted on the egg and sperm at the time of their formation. At last, a clear picture of an inherited environmental effect was beginning to emerge. All they needed to do now was to compile their findings. Bygren drew up a rough diagram, and sent it to Pembrey.

Hand-drawn, this is what Olov sent me. You know, he was too excited to wait for the thing to be drawn up properly. You know, he sent me the data. Er, in fact I was recovering, er, from having something down to my heart. So he sent it saying, er, I hope this, helps you get better quickly, because it was so exciting.

When Pembrey plotted out the diagram, he was immediately struck by its significance.

Once I had plotted out the, the full extent of those results, it was so beautiful and such a clear pattern. I knew then, quite definitely, that we were dealing with a trans-generational response. It was so coherent, and that's important in science that the effect was coherent in some way, was tied in when, when eggs and sperm were being formed.

The diagram showed a significant link between generations, between the diet in one and the life expectancy of another.

When you think that you have, have found something important for the understanding of the thing (it...) itself, you can imagine that this is something really special.

It's up there with I am... I'm a sort of fair-weather supporter of Liverpool. It's up there with Liverpool winning the Champion's League.

You can only have it once in your lifetime.

This is gonna become a famous diagram. I, I'm convinced by that. I get so excited every time I see it. It's just amazing. Every time I look at it, I find it really exciting. It's fantastic.

Pembrey and Bygren had the first conclusive proof of an environmental effect being inherited in humans.

New Words & Phrases:

puberty: The stage of adolescence in which an individual becomes physiologically capable of sexual reproduction. 青春期

plot: To represent graphically, as on a chart 以图表画出

fair-weather: Present and dependable only in good times 只适于顺利时候的只在好的时候出现或可信赖的