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Apple Gene for Red Color Found
FiReaNGeL writes "Researchers have located the gene that controls the red color of apples — a discovery that may lead to bright new apple varieties. 'The red color in apple skin is the result of anthocyanins, the natural plant compounds responsible for blue and red colours in many flowers and fruits,' says the leader of the CSIRO. By identifying master genes that were activated by light, they were able to pinpoint the gene that controls the formation of anthocyanins in apples. 'As well as giving apples their rosy red hue, anthocyanins are also antioxidants with healthy attributes, giving us plenty of reasons to study how the biochemical pathway leading to apple color is regulated,' researchers said."
Were going to be seeing Red iPods soon
orange apples incoming
now apples and oranges shall be COMPARABLE!!!
Now in stores, they'll be able to have Apples in Blueberry, Grape, Lime, Strawberry and Tangerine colours. Oh wait...
Already are my friend. Already are.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
""Researchers have located the gene that controls the red color of apples -- a discovery that may lead to bright new apple varieties. "
How about we answer, "why?" before messing around with things.
"...the red color of apples -- a discovery that may lead to bright new apple varieties" Yup...looks that way.
Next poll:
What would you like your apple to look like?
- Green and red stripes
- Green and red checkers
- Black
-Cowboyneil's ass
errrr...
Yeah, next thing you know they'll be making grasses with grains so heavy, they won't blow around in the wind anymore and people will need to manually harvest and re-seed the fields every year. Lazy meddling Mesopotamians.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Now we're going to see blue apples... and I thought green ketchup was bad...
OK fuckers, I'm prepared to pay extra cash for a Black Apple.
CSIRO - do you ugliest.
Does that mean my macbook will not become red hot any more?
Granny Smith apples in this study?
But seriously, does this mean that we'll soon see makeup products that will make women's lips permanently red? Or perhaps some other useful product that all of North America is just dying to have?
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
My family is heavily into organic food, and now that I am out of the house, I still try to eat stuff grown reasonably well, for taste and health reasons. But anyway, back at my old house, there were a number of apple trees in the yard when we moved in. One tree always has apples that look like they are covered in dust. The other trees don't. Blemishes and bumps are common, along with the occasional worm. Nothing in the supermarket, "organic" or otherwise, compares. Firm, not full of water, not ridiculously crispy, and have more of the taste of an apple than any other apple I have tried.
The way an apple looks matters little to me. Sure, the inability to wipe the dirty appearance off the apples put me off at first, but I now know that a bright red apple will taste more like water than anything else. And now thanks to the discovery of this gene, mega-orchards can grow good looking crops with far less effort, fertilizer, or taste, I would expect.
Things like this make me consider dropping out of the sciences. Every advancement seems to merely be another opportunity to cut back something else, and get away with less bottom-line. Still, maybe with the extra anti-oxidant thing, it could be worth it.
I have freaks! I did something right...
bright new apple varieties.
:)
Maybe not. There was just a nobel prize awarded in this area of research. IIRC, the gene expression is regulated by a twisted helix RNA type which prevents overexpression of given genes, and there's some feedback mechanism which causes the chromosomal DNA to stop expressing the mRNA after a while.
The original studies which started this were botanists trying to make more pink petunias - when they inserted more "pink" genes, the petunias came out white. The prize research was about regulation in c.elegans.
Botanists and molecular biologists will now shred my analysis.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
Apples that are UV reactive would be awesome for my next case mod!
"Bono".
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Roses are red, Apples are too, I know you colour gene, Now you are blue!
If population growth slowed a bit I think it would be better for the world.... however I could be completely wrong about that.
You mad
I am biased here, but I doubt such a change in nutrition would be beneficial. First, what nutrients? It seems every day, a new acid is found to be necessary, or the balance of proper fats is redefined. Until nutrition science is way more advanced, I think evolution will be much better provider of food. Where do you get your price? Why do you think this method will be so cheap? Power would need to be supplied and maintained. What the poor countries need is a reduction in the monoculture farming practices, I say. And is a decrease in population a problem?
Technology can be of use sometimes, but it seems to me that the way things are organized now is just ridiculous, and could easily be changed for the better without carbohydrate factories.
P.S. I am a bit of a socialist, if you didn't notice.
I have freaks! I did something right...
How about -- not at the mercy of nature as we once were, comfortable living, increased life expectancy, understanding our universe and our world better than we ever did and so on?
I think Slashdotters are becoming a whiny bunch.
Sure, there are problems in this world. Nobody is denying that.
But guess what? Civilization would not have happened if someone hadn't been curious in the first place -- to see what that piece of meat tasted like. To use that stone as a tool and to build and create.
Instead, you'd be running on a very green, pristine Earth for your life from a predator.
I think I'd rather have this, thank you very much.
Well, I guess that explains this.
In the beginning the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and is widely considered as a bad move.
I wish I had mod points for you.
Changing the nature of our environment to suit our needs has been something humans have been doing almost since we have been recognizable as humans (or perhaps this effect on nature is what makes humans identifiable as humans). Agriculture was one of the first of these changes - it allowed us to develop new ways of living that would have been impossible without it.
But it's funny to think about how counter-intuitive these changes are to the good of the plants/animals/beings that we're changing. While changing the color of an apple is trivial, the apple's red color is something that came about because it best fit the purpose and function of the apple to be red. If we turned apples blue, this could adversely affect tree reproduction - or it might lead to the starvation of certain animals that use apples as a primary food source. We have done a number on grain. Hard-coded dependencies in nature would likely crumble. Pigs, which never would have existed, at least not in their domestic forms, would certainly be an early casualty.
Survival of the fittest has turned into survival of whatever humans like. It's certainly the current paradigm of generational mutation. And it's interesting to think about how scientists of a future species would try to explain the strange characteristics of the various lifeforms on Earth if humans were wiped off the planet without a trace except the changes in the planet's biology we've effected...
How many of our adaptations would survive without our care?
Good for you. No one is saying that there should be no technology, just that there should be some thought. What is burning all this coal doing? What is going to happen if we keep hunting Dodos? Should I drive to work, or walk to the bus and lose some weight? Also, I don't think humans were as weak in nature as you portray them.
I have freaks! I did something right...
Will the new colorful apples be just as tasteless? I would be nice if they focused on growing apples that actually tasted of something other than wet and crunchy cardboard.
Technology brings rapid change to society and system, there is no shying away from that.
Let's see, all that burning coal has brought humans to regions in this world that could not sustain human civlization.
If all that burning coal is harmful, use nuclear fuel. If nuclear waste disposal becomes a problem, find a better source. The idea is to keep at it and not stop something because it also has potential for misuse.
Today, you may wipe out the dodos, but tomorrow you may have advanced enough technology to recreate dodos from their remains.
Also, I don't think humans were as weak in nature as you portray them.
You probably do not spend enough time outdoors else you'd not be making that statement.
I participated in an apple tasting festival a year or so ago, and I only really learned one thing. The uglier the variety of apple, the better it tastes. A perfectly-colored, gargantuan Red Delicious from the store has nearly no flavor whatsoever. By contrast, if you find one that looks like a potato, you are in for a treat.
I'm going to rain on their parade. I don't care what the apple looks like. I'd just like to be able to go into the supermarket and buy an apple that's crispy and doesn't present me with a mouth full of watery mush when I bite into it. All their engineering efforts at getting "perfect" apples to market have done is to take away the essential crispness of the fruit. I don't even want to think about what they do to preserve the average grocery-store apple.
Thankfully we still have farmer's markets and local pick-your-own orchards. A blemish or two doesn't count for anything against the crisp, sweet taste of a real, unpreserved apple. Too bad we may have a generation that thinks an "apple" is an improbably red, waxed object with the taste and texture of oversweetened oatmeal.
"Here's what's happening. You're starting to drive like your Dad..." - Red Green
Haven't you ever seen any pictures of cave men? How can you say they are weak? Those were some badass doods!
Also, some things are beyond potential for misuse, and can no longer be used well. Take nuclear weapons, and asbestos (I believe there are almost-as-good replacements to it now). No one is saying, as I said before, that technology is bad, just that some thought should be used now. And is it a good thing the dodos are extinct?
I have freaks! I did something right...
The weather that year also plays an important role, mainly rainfall and the amount of sun and heat. That's easily demonstrated as the main factor by the simple fact that all the farmers in a region get the same kind of results for a given year (small red apples, big lightly colored ones, fragile things that fall on the ground).
In fact chemicals are very expensive to an apple grower so you can bet that they try to use them as little as they can.
That's not to say that they don't spray, they do spray a lot but it's in their best interest to spray as little as possible and many are trying to limit their use of chemicals.
If there is anything wrong, it's the association in consumer's mind of the red color and ripeness. You can have perfectly sweet and ripe fruits but that aren't all that red. This has lead to variety (like the delicious) that is very red but has no taste. To each his own.
Chemicals may be expensive in some cases, but I believe in general chemical fertilizer is cheaper than transporting compost, when crops are grown in large batches. I think "you are what you eat" applies to apples as well as anything, and a bag of chemicals... is not going to taste as good as a bag of composted leaves, windfall, and faecal matter. OK, never mind that analogy.
I have freaks! I did something right...
Well, indirectly, they already are manufacturing food. More than half of the world's fixed nitrogen is produced (converted from N2 to a biologically available form, like ammonia or nitrate) in a factory as part of fertilizer production, replacing what used to be done by microbes in the soil. Plants use this nitrogen to grow, and we eat them to grow, and thus a large fraction of the nitrogen in the protein in your body has passed through a factory.
(Exception granted if you are Amish, and still farming the old way. If you are Amish, should you really be reading slashdot?)
The Grapple Fruits company has something to cheer about when they get purple apples. Now if only they could genetically engineer their flavor instead of just ingeniously soaking their apples in artificial grape flavoring.
Haven't you looked at mammoths? Even our cave-men ancestors looked puny in comparison.
The point I was trying to make is that science and technology are not some kind of evil that are screwing things over. They are keeping us away from the ruthless side of nature that we'd otherwise be exposed to. Goodluck trying to find a cave in the middle of a winter in the midwest with just a sheepskin. Let's see how long you last (and how comfortable you are). And goodluck finding one in the jungles of India or the grasslands of Africa, before you ruthlessly get torn apart or stomped upon.
The very coal that causes pollution is what keeps you warm, comfortable and safe.
And Dodos? Bah, so humans wiped them out. As if nature hasn't selected other species for extinction before. There is a reason evolution happened and we came out on top of the foodchain. I am not advocating the extinction of species, merely that if it has already happened because of our ignorance, then the solution is not to stop science (or our curiosity) but rather to channel it in a way that this does not happen again.
Are there social and ecological side effects to using technology? Yes. Most certainly. Nobody is denying that.
But sometimes, it takes risks for science and society to take that leap forward. Someone wanted to make sure that there were no dragons out there. Someone took a ship and explored. Sure, there was spread of disease but there was also progress.
I think that is what counts. In the long run, it is how much better we've made the life of humanity's lot.
http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/red/
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
i don't know about designer dogs, but get rid of those shivering little chihuahuas. those are just ugly. now a little pug-nosed bull dog. that's a keeper.
say! what was the topic again?
'tis but a scratch.
I can't wait to have a red granny smith apple.
Can they figure out a way of manufacturing food in mass quantities with minimal raw materials. That is, you have a factory to which u supply water, esentail minerals (mined ore?) that contain iron etc, and electricty and out the other end comes out a starch like carbohydrate and nutrients.
It's called a potato field.
KFG
Slashdot has a definate pro-apple bias!
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Yay to global warming, ice cap melting, deforestation, and enviromental pollution. Love that headlong rush.
This coming from a person who survive child birth and is busy slamming his fingers away on a computer hooked into a power grid and connected by a world wide communications system. Dude, this "head long rush" is the only reason why you are alive. Chances are that without that merry old industrial revolution you wouldn't have even existed because your ancestors would be dead. Even if you still managed to come into existence, you would face the grim challenge of getting past the first 5 years of your life - which for the non-industrialized is a rather grim prospect. To top it all of, even if you did manage to get as far as you have, you sure as shit would not be talking about it on the Internet.
With the "headlong rush" comes the world you have. Sure, this world has problems, but they are petty and small compared to the problems they solved. More humans are alive then ever before not because the world is a harsher place to live, but because it is a place that is easier to live.
I am not advocating burning down the rain forest or seeing how much CO2 we can dump into the air, but a 'headlong rush' towards whatever the hell it is we are rushing towards is what makes us human. If that isn't satisfactory enough, then at the very least this "headlong rush" is the reason the vast majority of us are even in existence. I personally am damn merry that I was squirted out into a world with a doctor armed with modern medicine to make sure I got to the ripe old age I am today.
Now I can finally get a Ferrari in true "candy apple red".
--
make install -not war
I remember when the best-tasting apple you could get was a Delicious from Yakima, Washington. Precisely the right balance of sweet, tart, firmness, juice, etc. The best ones were a very dark red, almost a purplish-black shade, rather than bright red, and they tended to be irregularly shaped.
I read an article a while back, about how breeding for marketable appearance and storage tolerance has, by ill chance, bred out the true apple taste and texture, and that the genes for the tasty old-style apple have been lost in the main commercial gene pool.
That's a sad loss. I'd rather have an ugly apple that tastes wonderful, than a pretty apple that's dull eating.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Those things... work?
I have freaks! I did something right...
Good for you. No one is saying that there should be no technology, just that there should be some thought. What is burning all this coal doing? What is going to happen if we keep hunting Dodos? Should I drive to work, or walk to the bus and lose some weight? Also, I don't think humans were as weak in nature as you portray them.
It is easy to smugly say that we shouldn't ever burn coal... all the while you burn your merry amount of coal in electrical costs and enjoy the fruits of an industrial revolution that was powered by coal. If we had never used coal we sure as shit would have never developed any 'green' technologies to begin with. I am not saying we need to go out and burn down the rain forest to make a parking lot, but that we should realize that the path towards technological progress is messy. There was never a "clean" solution around the industrial revolution other then not having it. I don't know about you, but I am damn glad that my ancestors toiled through the industrial revolution when they did instead of pausing to really think it over.
Without the messy things we have done in the past and continue to do today we wouldn't even be having this conversation on computers. Hell, in all likelihood we wouldn't even be alive. Striving towards a greener society is a noble goal to strive for, but not at the expense of cowering in terror until we answer every unanswered question. I am damn glad that my ancestors toiled through the industrial revolution, and I imagine that my grandchildren will be thankful that I toiled through my generation in a world that they will undoubtedly look back as ugly and messy. This is human progress.
You should read ishmael.
Ah, I seriously doubt that it was the leader of the CSIRO who announced this - if he announced every discovery he wouldn't have any time to do anything else, given that the CSIRO is a massive government-funded dedicated research agency with over 6500 staff. In fact, from the article:
"The red colour in apple skin is the result of anthocyanins, the natural plant compounds responsible for blue and red colours in many flowers and fruits," says the leader of the CSIRO Plant Industry research team, Dr Mandy Walker.
Not a big issue, just a little clarification (it just struck me as odd in the summary).
Might be worth requiring by law that all genetically altered food is of a obviously diffrent colour as a kind of warning, I would love blue apples, then again I had that green tomato sauce, that made me feel sick. Maybe the next Firefox crop circle could be in colour.
cat
I'm a big fan of smaller, green apples. They're not near as bland as the red ones -- both being commercial varieties -- but I still say the best ones I've ever had came from an old farmer my great aunt lived near.
He made cider, too.
Real cider. Not pasteurized. If you've never had unpasteurized cider, you're missing out -- the cooking changes the flavor, and it's not for the better. The things we do to avoid bacteria!
So while the tasty genes may not exist in the commercial gene pool, they're still out there. Heck, all sorts of old genes are laying around -- there's a whole field of traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables and flowers. People collect 'em. Out back I've got a rose bush that's well over 100 years old -- you'll not find anything in the store like it, but it's the HARDIEST rose bush I've ever seen. Survived several replantings, a chewing-to-the-ground by a dog who thought it was yummy.. insane.
But it does like blood. Very thorny, and I swear it throws itself out towards flesh...
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
... and it would make third world farmers even more dependent on major western food corporations or their patents. The next Monsanto is due! This move would allow western corporations to keep a foothold in the third world food production by patents, instead of allowing these countries to produce their own food in peace. It would effectively kill local farming. Stopping all these proxy wars is part of the solution, in order to stop colonialism, not creating more dependecies.
Hey man that sounds like soylent green for the poor. Millions of poor people standing in a queue for free artificial food. What should they pay the artificial food from when they're unemployed? These countries have little industry. Farming is the one major employment chance there.
How hypocritical can one be?
open (SIG, "</dev/zero"); $sig = <SIG>; close SIG;
I eat an apple every workday, as part of my lunch. Two varieties that are really delicious, crispy and juicy: Fuji and Braeburn. They really have a nice bite to 'em.
By performing a taste test!
If you're talking about the one by Daniel Quinn, I have.
Now in the news: Apple sues apples for copyright infringement, claims that iApple - a project to make customized colored apples for all trendy fruit-lovers, has been hijacked!
Shoudln't that read Apple iGene?
...ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
The colour of Apple is white, usually with glossy and shiny finish. So have some common sense, people.
Uh but isn't cider alcoholic? So why bother pasteurizing? If you do things right you shouldn't have dangerous bacteria left, correct?
Now we just need to find the color gene in Apple Computers to make them less... white.
Great Intellect...
NFTA(*):
Years ago, researchers performed some experiments where this gene was deactivated with the help of a targeted gene-suppressing retrovirus. The resulting fruits were so ugly colored they had to rebrand them as "iMac" and sell them to computer fashion victims.
(*): Not From The Article
Nuffsaid
________
Don't know about his cat, but Schroedinger is definitely dead.
It's all very well fiddling around with those things, but when they talk about 'better apples' they simply mean apples that will sell better, keep better during transport, require less to grow etc. This is why you can hardly find a good apple in a supermarket - they tend to be hard (so they don't bruise too easily), not too aromatic (since that attracts insects) and shiny so people notice them. Unfortunately they are not very good to eat - leathery flesh and little taste is what you mostly get. All the good, old-fashioned varieties tend to be comparatively floury, aromatic and not incredibly shiny.
Is she a Golgafrincham? Has she researched into what people want from fruit, you know, how they relate to it, the image; do they want fruit that can be fitted nasally?
According to the bag of potatoes in my pantry, yes.
Seriously, they do. Half of the time I think I have a good one, it turns out to be a squishy pile of wet sand in my mouth.
It's all about the Fugi Apple. Ya, they're kind of red... but not red red. Red Delicious is teh suck. Worst Apple Ever.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Thats a result of differing UK/US terminoligy. In the UK we refer to the alcoholic drink made from apples as "cider" but in the US "cider" referes to cloudy pressed apple juice and the alcoholic drink is called "hard cider"
What human gene is responsible for making soylent green?
Labradoodle
Set your phasers on "funky"!
What happened? It's a story with 'Apple' in the title and there is no FUD tag?
The zealots must be slipping.
Anyone else read the headline and think they'd found a cure for ginger hair?
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
How long before we see blue apples?
How can you then promote a story which claims that scientists are able to remove the red color from apples? :)
80 CC D8 AF AE D3 AB 54 B7 2E CE 67 C7
No, and neither have you.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
Was prepared to see a story about Macintosh.
[ducks flying shoe]
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
. . . Reality Distortion Fields?
---- "XML is like violence. If it doesn't fix the problem, you aren't using enough."
And they can even get auto insurance!
...following the principles of Heisenburger's Uncertain Cat...
How do you like them apples? sorry...
I'm not a brewer, but this is my understanding from those who are:
Bacteria are the enemies of brewing. Bacterial contamination can ruin beer, cider, or wine (not sure what they do to hard liquor), and if you get a clostridium or other nasty anaerobe in your equipment, the results can be toxic. Remember, the ingredients don't *start off* alcoholic, so nasties DO have a chance to grow during the early stages, before the yeast get their act in gear.
So if you're a brewer (home or commercial), it behooves you to keep your equipment scrupulously clean, and invite no more bacteria than those found naturally in food. (Inside, not surface bacteria. And very little lives *inside* solid tissue, like an apple's flesh.)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Nuclear weapons do have a lot of use, actually. The dropping of the atomic bomb also caused A) A huge push in technology and B) A fear of war when otherwise war may have broken out.
Also, Asbestos was used since the time of the Greeks as a non-extinguishable fuel. It was also used in blankets, tablecloths, etc. It was a pretty common part of every day life. This surely helped them move forward in civilization, bringing us where we are now. Sure, it may be useless- and even dangerous- now, but that doesn't mean that it never should have been used in the first place.
Same with these apples. We may find a way to make them better for you. Jam pack them with nutrients. Whatever. 50 years from now, we may find out it was ultimately unhealthy. Who knows? But not knowing is not a valid reason for not attempting to find out. Well, there is one community where it is...but it sure ain't the scientific one.
No, the analogy is still a good one. Apples covered in chemical pesticides _do_ taste worse than shit.
Now I'm really looking forward for the apples I eat to look like this. :-(
Oh wait, that sounds just like I'm Microsoft...
If they only moved the "pink gene" than it's no surprise it didn't work. It's oft quoted how similar our DNA is to that of chimps, but quite clearly we're not chimps - it's not the code per se that determines what you are, it how and when you read it.
# ok, I know it's not the cleanest bit of code, it's not OO, it's poorly documented and it mixes in functions into a what looks like a procedural language, but it's the best analogy I could figure out. DNA is a random access data store, but the transcription system is fairly linear. In a cell - the functions would be inputs from other organelles, and the constants wouldn't be hardcoded. But it'll do.
Perhaps they could use this new knowledge, somehow, to develop an apple without a protein that causes people to have allergic reactions. I have anaphalactic reactions from just apple juice, never mind eating an apple. From the small amounts of research that I have done, there are people who are allergic to apples as well. Perhaps they could GE a variety of apples that would be safe for us?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_plant
Modern day fruit/vegetable shoppers are spoiled by supermarkets that only sell perfect looking produce & the result is a lot of waste, as perfectly edible, but trivially blemished food gets thrown away b/c no one will buy it.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
doh! didn't encode a chevron :( - see, now that's an example as to how the misencoding of a single character can destroy the sense of a message ;)
...
1000-1270 should read :
1000 GOTO 1
1250 PRODUCTS=MEASURE("FRUCTOSE")
1251 WHILE (PRODUCTS < ENOUGHFORFRUCTOSE )
1260 IF GENETOEXPRESS = 10 AND THEN GOSUB 2000
sorry 'bout that !
I've had some pretty good green apples too, of unknown variety and provenance.
:) Have you tried growing offspring from cuttings?
Funny thing, the best apples also kept better in the short term, whereas the newer commercial types get mealy [ick!] real fast. But they're largely selected for how well they hold up in long-term storage. I have a few in my fridge that have been there for over a year and a half, and they still look like fresh apples.
My fave non-sweet apple is the "beer apple" (it's not exactly sour, but it's not the same tartness as an eating apple either). I *think* it's actually one of the common rootstocks, not a cultivated variety. Very rarely seen as a mature tree, presumably because it's only seen when the graft dies off and the rootstock takes over. The apples are barrel-shaped, about 1.3" long, and a distinctive dark blood red. You can't eat very many at a time (they'll make you sick) but they make the BEST pink jelly ever.
I'll bet your old rose has a SMELL, too. It's not a proper rose if it doesn't have a smell!!
BTW one of the prominent rose researchers says DON'T prune any more than you absolutely have to (only to remove dead and overly-straggly or crowded limbs), because pruning actually destroys the rose over time. I can certainly attest that mine bloom best when left to their own devices, and certainly exhibit less heat stress.
I haven't had much luck growing roses from cuttings (probably cuz it gets too hot here during the growing season -- we peak at 118F) but have been collecting hips from likely specimens. I know that's a crapshoot, but better than not saving those old genes at all.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Patent Pending # 154332354
load "$",8,1
They should really name this newly discovered sequence "Bono" — being responsible, as he is, for making Apple's red.
--
>> -- a discovery that may lead to bright new apple varieties
God I hope not. I'd much rather eat food that hasn't had its genes constructed in a lab.
Bad eating fruit makes for great jelly fruit ;) Up until about 7 years ago, we had an age-old cherry tree in our back yard -- with huge, dark, seeded, SOUR cherries. Couldn't eat them, but the birds loved it.. and made for some pretty good pie. Unfortunately before I could get a new one growing, it got diseased and died.. I realized it was probably pretty uncommon too late.
:D
The rose bush.. well. I accidentally replanted it along the alleyway this year. It found a crack in the side of the shed and sent a branch inside, which quickly grew to about 7' long -- and was stark white from the total lack of sunlight. Had to cut it off, threw it out back, and it landed with the cut end in some loose dirt we bought to fill in some holes.
And started growing. O_o
I'm honestly scared of this thing. I think one day I'm going to wake up and it'll have grown into the house and be laying in bed next to me.. jaws open..
It does smell wonderful though, when the wind's right it'll fill up my bedroom. On the second story, about 40 feet away.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Sour cherries still exist aplenty, because most varieties of sweet cherry require a sour cherry as a pollinator, why I don't know.
:)
Attack of the killer rosebush!! next time you trim it, maybe you could send me a few chunks? it sounds like just what we need here in the desert. Maybe it'll eat a few of the Starving Attack Rabbits.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Have you never heard of those nations that are rejecting donations of golden rice because of fears about genetic engineering? Apparently it's better to let your citizens starve to death than to allow them to eat unnatural food.