Enter the Cool World of Comics: How One Alumna Turned to Art to Describe Science Research

Julia Shangguan ’18 was always meant to be an artist. As a child, she took art lessons from her mom’s best friend, who painted with watercolors and acrylic.

But when it came time to pursue a Grinnell education, Shangguan fell in love with biology. Like many incoming Grinnellians, she was excited to explore anything and everything within the open curriculum — perhaps anthropology, sociology, or art. So, she took a chance with an Introduction to Biology class with Professor Jonathan “Jackie” Brown.

“He was so enthusiastic about his course topic, prairie restoration,” reminisces Shangguan. Though she doesn’t quite recall the topic of her end-of-semester project, she remembers presenting it at a huge poster session for the campus community.

“The event was pretty pivotal,” says Shangguan, “because the next day in class, Jackie told me, ‘You were beaming the whole time!’ It was so exhilarating to talk about the research I had done.”

Meanwhile, Shangguan’s love of art persisted. As she pursued a biology major, she also pursued an art major that satisfied her creative side.

“There were a lot of opportunities that fostered these two interests of mine,” she shares.

At Grinnell, she curated a science-art exhibition at Grinnell’s Museum of Art with Professor Brown, took a class about the chemistry of art materials, and conducted research in Hawaii examining damselfly pigmentation. “We looked at how their coloration helps them adapt to UV exposure in their environments,” Shangguan explains.

Her science-art background at Grinnell would eventually become handy as she ventured into the world of science comics.

Turning Science into Art

When Shangguan entered her fifth year completing her Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics this past year, she had an epiphany.

“I realized there are people with science expertise conjoining their skills with their interest in art,” she recounts. Inspired, she reached out to several people who fused their interests in art and science and asked for their advice. One of them was Caroline Hu, a biology professor at an art school.

“She told me to start building a portfolio,” recounts Shangguan, “and connect with people doing the things I’m interested in. Sometimes, an opportunity will pop up at their organization and share it with you.”

Shangguan put her advice to the test, reaching out to the biological sciences communications staff at the University of Chicago. She sent over her two-page comic about her research on a molecule called myosin-10 and asked if they’d ever consider collaborating on a weekly informational column that uses comics.

It worked.

The University of Chicago’s Comprehensive Cancer Center invited Shangguan to collaborate on a five-part comic series explaining what causes cancer, how it is treated, and more. During her time at the Cancer Center, Shangguan and her collaborators had interesting conversations on approaching the topic in her comics.

“One of the things that came up was how metaphors are often used to talk about cancer, even though some of them may not necessarily resonate with patients,” explains Shangguan. “For example, like those that describe patients as warriors or undergoing a battle. Those metaphors might make patients feel as if they are weak or failing the ‘battle’ — especially if their bodies are not cooperating with the treatments. 

“Cancer is obviously a nuanced topic — you have to be careful about how you even talk about it.”

Bzzz…Onto a Comic Series Covering Bumblebees

Currently, Shangguan works as an intern at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where she is creating more educational comics. This time? About bumblebees being one of Earth’s great pollinators. Compared to honeybees, bumblebees are especially efficient because of a process called buzz pollination.

According to Shangguan, buzz pollination is when bumblebees quickly vibrate their wing muscles and shake off thousands of pollen grains in an instant. And because of their larger bodies, bumblebees can capture more pollen and cross-fertilize better than other pollinators when they fly from flower to flower.

“It's really great to work with such a cute character, but it’s also been illuminating to learn how critical they are to our ecosystem,” says Shangguan.

What Shangguan has enjoyed most about her time so far in the art-science world is both making her science research accessible and learning about new topics along the way.

“What I realized from my time in school is that I like talking to people about my science. But I also like listening to other people talk about their work, too. What is most exciting to me is being able to learn about multiple, different topics from fellow science experts.”

She’s also excited to help bridge the disconnect between niche science concepts and the public’s general understanding of them — especially when it comes to her own research in graduate school. “I don’t think somebody on the street would understand what it means for me to study this tiny protein within our cells. And I think that’s totally fair.”

So, for now, Shangguan will continue to create more science comics in the world, from myosin-10 protein molecules to bumblebees.

“Hopefully I’ll stay in this realm of visual science communications and see where it takes me.”

And we’ll be right here, ready to read them.