Million to one apple is half red, half green

[Madalch]

Just remember to keep the Zippo at a distance. One inadvertent flick and you'll have roasted apple instead.

Don't worry- I'm quite experienced at working with flammable liquids and gases. Sometimes at the same time.

Me:

 

[ElMondoHummus]

http://www.magazine.uc.edu/0408/japaneseapples.htm
Wow, nature is amazing! Quick, hide the stencil!

I know this is off topic, but I'm amazed at the effort the Japanese apple farmers put into raising their product. Individual bagging? Wow!

 

[ElMondoHummus]

Don't worry- I'm quite experienced at working with flammable liquids and gases. Sometimes at the same time.

Quit bragging about getting drunk and lighting your flatulence!

 

[Olowkow]

I know this is off topic, but I'm amazed at the effort the Japanese apple farmers put into raising their product. Individual bagging? Wow!

Well, hey, at $150 a pop, you could have a nice velvet bag, like Crown Royal.

 

[ElMondoHummus]

Well, hey, at $150 a pop, you could have a nice velvet bag, like Crown Royal.

Not really the same thing. That's just packaging; it's not like they made a teeny individual barrel to age your purchase in. But bagging each apple during growth? Wow... that's nearly obsessive.

(*Pauses, thinks*...)

Or are you talking about bagging me for a c-note fitty?

 

[Olowkow]

I think I misunderstood you. The apples sell for $150 each. Whatever. Check this out:
http://boingboing.net/2009/09/04/pears-grown-in-the-s.html

 

[ponderingturtle]

Not really the same thing. That's just packaging; it's not like they made a teeny individual barrel to age your purchase in. But bagging each apple during growth? Wow... that's nearly obsessive.

(*Pauses, thinks*...)

Or are you talking about bagging me for a c-note fitty?

Hey they grow pears in bottle so why not apples in bags?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Which half is poisoned again?

 

[jer_j]

So if I somehow managed to breed a cat and a dog, would the baby be cat on the right side and dog on the left side? Or dog on the right and cat on the left? Or would it depend on which animal was male and which was female?

 

[jasonpatterson]

No, that's not how it would work. If you were somehow able to breed a cat and a dog, or better, a horse and a donkey, which can interbreed, you'd get a mix throughout, a mule. This is because every cell would contain both cat and dog genes. What we're talking about is when one of two things happens early in the formation of an embryo that cause some of the cells in the body (or fruit) to carry different genes than the rest.

One way that it can happen is when a single cell out of a very small number picks up an error (it's easiest to imagine only two cells) when it divides and is different from the remainder of the embryo. That portion of the embryo goes on to develop just as the remaining part does, with it's mutation included. Imagine it developed the genes for albinism. If that cell went on to form only part of the skin/hair/eyes, then only part of those systems would be albino, the remainder would be normal. This type of event is the cause of mosaic down syndrome as well.

Another thing that can happen is that one of a pair of fraternal twins can be absorbed by the other early in development. The two sets of cells develop into a single human, and both can contribute characteristics to the adult. I recall a medical show about chimeras in which a woman had some particular blood type (let's say AB) but her germ cells, and thus her children, had a different blood type (let's say O.) She had had a few kids, so it wasn't any sort of switched at birth scenario, just a weird event. The conjecture was that her whole reproductive system had formed from the cells of a fraternal twin.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

There are several things. It seems that multi colored apples are not uncommon in some varieties. And of course are you working at an apple picking operation that has those apples?

I don't understand your question.

My point is that with 4 o'clocks (which are not apples), you see half-and-half flowers pretty regularly.

I'm skeptical of two points: that this is a mutation in apples that has either never occurred before or that happens only to one in a million apples.

One in a million is a relatively high frequency, so I would have seen another half-and-half apple before this. According to this page, in 1997 worldwide apple production was 44.7 million metric tonnes.

If this were a one in a million apple, we'd likely have 44.7 metric tonnes of these half-and-half apples annually. That's a lot of apples!

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Yeah, I had an apple tree in my back yard growing up. The apples ripen from green to red, and faster based on exposure to sunlight.

Usually the side facing the sun would be much more red than the side facing toward the inside of the tree.

Of course never so extreme as the picture, but it makes sense that by completely coving one side you might get a more extreme effect.

I'm not saying that nature never produces straight lines, but in this case I don't think different exposure to sun would produce a sharp line (straight or otherwise). The ripening process isn't *only* a matter of exposure to sunlight. (In fact, I think temperature is more important than light in itself.) It's not like the apple is a CCD!

 

[dlorde]

The Independent is boring.

Only because it tends to eschew hype for news. Can be a refreshing change.

No-one reads it unless they have to.

I and many other voluntary readers (don't know the current circulation) clearly can't agree with that.

It's left on trains or planes occasionally. Probably by the same shadowy people who leave bibles in hotel rooms.

Possibly. Most readers probably diligently recycle theirs.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

In fruits that are known for coming in different colors, sometimes the color is a matter of timing, not genetics; it ripens from one color to the other, and you just pick it early or late in the process. If that's the case with apples, then covering half of it could have sped up or slowed down the ripening process on one side.

Have you never eaten a ripe golden apple variety?

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Have you never eaten a ripe golden apple variety?

Or a Granny Smith.

I was thinking more of the McIntosh--where the skin is both green and red. I've never seen one of them in a perfect half-and-half either.

 

[Lucky]

Another red-gold example!

From 1983 (sadly, there's no picture).

Dr. Imago: Your objections are completely unfounded. I have spent a few hours with Google Scholar educating myself on chimerism in fruit trees (it's a more interesting subject than I expected), and have found that the causes of chimera distribution patterns are mindbogglingly more complicated than you suggest. The proportions of visually distinct regions on a fruit often don't conform to the initial five-fold symmetry. I have also found examples that refute your arguments about the appearance of the join and the colour contrast.

Will post details when I have time.

JoeTheJuggler: It's only ignorant journalists that refer to it as the 'million to one apple' - see previous post - it's not attributed to any expert they interviewed. The only one that seems to have mentioned any numbers specifically said this example would be very much rarer than one in a million.

 

[jasonpatterson]

Lucky, you win the Obscure Reference of the Year award. Wow.

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

I think I misunderstood you. The apples sell for $150 each. Whatever. Check this out:
http://boingboing.net/2009/09/04/pears-grown-in-the-s.html

I imagine that these come in a price range. I've once had the pleasure of eating one of these bagged apples. I think I payed six dollars or so for it, but not 150. It was a good apple, but not worth the price.

A.

 

[Dr. Imago]

Dr. Imago: Your objections are completely unfounded.

Completely unfounded?

I've posted another equally plasible way that this could've happened, through chicanery, which also describes how relatively easy it would be to produce such an effect. Other posters have shown examples of more elaborate ways that apples can be "stenciled" and whatnot.

If you go back and look at the original picture, you'll see at the apex of the fruit that the color line (towards the posterior part that's away from the lens in the photo) is unbalanced through the sepal line.

I've made my objections. The burden of proof as to whether this apple is "real" is not on me. Therefore, my opinion that this particular apple is a forgery - not that chimeras can happen and are a natural occurrence - is hardly completely unfounded.

I await your additional "proof" that I am wrong.

~Dr. Imago

 

[Dr. Imago]

Here's an example of an apple chimera that shows less dramatic color imbalance and where you can see the apex of the fruit. You'll notice that you can see the sepal, the tip of what was formerly the petal, and how the fruit is 1/5th of the color change:

In this one, again we see a less dramatic color imbalance, and not a true 1/2 of the apple but, if you look carefully, 2/5th's shading looking at the sepal lines. One of the "sections" may have grown slightly larger than the others making it appear that it is half, when it really isn't. But, the demarcation and coloring is much more subtle and the line separating the color imbalance much more natural appearing.

(images from "FruitForum")

Same thing in this one... Again, notice the sepal lines and that it's not truly half of the apple.

Now, go back and look at the dramatic color demarcation in the almost cartoonish version that was submitted for our review in the OP.

Someone's taking the piss.

~Dr. Imago