Interesting words, issue five

Your thoughts on any of the interesting words here or in other posts are welcome. Less prelude today because I don't have the energy or thoughts for it right now. Find back issues of interesting words here. 

epigenetic(s): A scientific term that the CDC defines as "the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work." Epigenetic changes do not alter the underlying DNA sequence but do change how the genes are expressed. Epigenetic changes can be inherited but are also reversible. It took me a fairly decent amount of reading to somewhat adequately understand this concept as a layperson. Even so, I am not entirely sure if I've understood this word/concept properly, so if my explanation here is incorrect in some way, please inform me. It's an interesting concept and it makes me wonder what kind of epigenetic changes might currently be inflicted upon myself due to environmental factors. Further reading: one / two / three 

ekiben: Japanese for bento boxes sold to be eaten on trains; related term soraben for bento boxes sold at airports. Etymology from Wiktionary: "Blend of 駅 (eki, “station”) +‎ 弁当 (bentō, “boxed lunch”)" [thank you to David Ramos for this word] Before boarding the train to Nagoya, they bought an ekiben for the trip. 

anthrophony: any sounds produced by human beings or their creations. Automated announcements on trains, noise pollution from traffic and someone talking on the phone all fall under anthrophony. Related terms: geophony (sounds produced by the earth) and biophony (sounds produced by other living organisms). Water flowing in a stream produces geophony, while a bird chirping produces biophony.  

erythema: medical term that means, in general, reddening of the skin. There are various specific types of erythema that vary in severity. A sunburn causes erythema. Blushing is a benign form of erythema. Erythema migrans describes the type of rash seen in Lyme disease. Tangent: I worry about getting a tick sometimes. 

abseil: British English for rappel. I think it sounds a little cooler. The rock climber abseiled down the cliff after reaching the top. Tangent: I would take up rock climbing; I think it's interesting, but it's kind of an expensive sport to practice. 

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