Adam's Apples

PHOTO: JOO NATH /( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) The floating white precipitate inside the test tube indicates the DNA has completely separated. Technological progress is making DNA analysis of apples increasingly affordable. Gene sequencing has already informed scholarly works on apple diversity and evolution . Scientists at the University of Minnesota used these techniques to identify numerous errors in the presumed pedigrees of apples published by...scientists at the University of Minnesota. (Gotta love the scientific method!)

photo: tincho franco Sing in me,  Muse Bard, and tell of that pomaceous fruit. Specifically, I have been unable to locate the plant patent for the Aura apple . Aura is a brand name, so not the true cultivar name under which the patent would have been granted. Is this a job for a mild-mannered robot?

This cheerful lemon-yellow apple, prominently ribbed, bears faint honey-sweet aromas. It is blocky and a little lumpy, with a splash of russet spilling from the stem well. The closest thing to a blush is a region or two that is slightly more orange.

In the 1990s, the Washington State University cast its envious eye at the success of the University of Minnesota's Honeycrisp , and asked, why can't we do that? "That" in this case was not just apple breeding, but also a new business model. Honeycrisp was a club apple , restricted to select Minnesota growers while the plant patent lasted. (It expired in 2008.) Cosmic Crisp (left) is Washington's answer, and Washington growers have gone all-in, planting tens of millions of trees since its 2015 release. But Sunrise Magic (right) was an early contender. Released in 2009 as WA-2, it got its own brand name in 2016.

photo: judy elliot Rank amateur who does not even grow apples is not shy about holding forth on them anyway : As you’ve probably gathered, his tastes don’t align with the average consumer’s. And, as you might be asking yourself by now: Why should I care what Adam Auster thinks? Millions of people eat apples. He’s just one.