Page 28 - AT

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 21 october 2019
Move over, Honeycrisp: New apple to debut at grocery stores

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS ples internationally. "A new
Associated Press variety can reinvigorate a
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — market and industry."
They call it the Cosmic Washington growers, who
Crisp. It's not a video game, had watched the market
a superhero or the title of a share for sometimes mushy
Grateful Dead song. Red Delicious apples plum-
It's a new variety of apple, met over time, were look-
coming to a grocery store ing to replicate the success
near you Dec. 1 of the Honeycrisp, Adams
Cosmic Crisp is the first said.
apple ever bred in Wash- "It's going to shake things
ington state, which grows up in a great way," Adams
the majority of the United said. "We're expecting it to
States' apples. It's expect- increase in volume rapidly."
ed to be a game changer. Adams could not specu-
Already, growers have late on how much Cosmic
planted 12 million Cosmic Crisp apples will cost per
Crisp apple trees, a sign pound.
of confidence in the new "Better quality makes for
variety. While only 450,000 In this photo taken Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019, a Cosmic Crisp apple, partially coated with a white better returns," said Clark,
40-pound (18-kilogram) kaolin clay to protect it from sunburn, is picked at an orchard in Wapato, Wash. the grower. "This is a for-
boxes will be available for Associated Press profit deal, man. We're try-
sale this year, that will jump acres of Cosmic Crisps. when it was introduced a and Fuji (13%). ing to make some money
to more than 2 million box- The new variety keeps for a couple of decades ago. It Apples are grown in the with it."
es in 2020 and more than long time in storage and in was developed by the Uni- arid valleys and brown hill- Remarkably, this is the first
21 million by 2026. the refrigerator, said Kate versity of Minnesota. sides of central Washing- apple variety developed
The apple variety was de- Evans, who runs the breed- "This apple (Cosmic Crisp) ton, a few hours east of in Washington state, which
veloped by Washington ing program at Washington has a good opportunity Seattle, and watered by ir- has been known for apples
State University. Washing- State University. to be a hit with a lot of rigation projects. for more than a century.
ton growers, who paid for And it's an exceptionally people," said Clark, a vice The state has around 1,500 Scientists at WSU's Tree
the research, will have the good "eating apple," she president of Price Cold apple growers and 175,000 Fruit Research Center in
exclusive right to sell it for said. "It's ultra-crisp, very Storage, a company with acres of orchards. About Wenatchee spent 20 years
the first 10 years. juicy and has a good bal- orchards and fruit ware- 50,000 people pick some breeding the desired ap-
The apple is called Cosmic ance of sweetness and houses throughout central 12 billion apples by hand ple tree seeds. In addition
Crisp because of the bright tartness." Washington. "It better be, each fall. The fruit is export- to helping pay for that
yellowish dots on its skin, Cosmic Crisps are a cross because we are going to ed to 60 countries. research, apple growers
which look like distant stars. between the disease-re- have a lot of them." With so much success, why need a license to buy the
"I've never seen an apple sistant Enterprise and the Apples are a $2.5 billion a was a new apple variety trees and pay a royalty on
prettier in the orchard popular, crunchy Honey- year business in Washing- needed? sales of the fruit.
than these things are," said crisp varieties. The Honey- ton, which grows about "A new apple brings excite- The trees take three years
Aaron Clark of Yakima, crisp, nicknamed "Money- 60% of the nation's supply, ment," said Toni Lynn Ad- to produce a crop, said
whose family owns several crisp" by some growers, was or nearly 140 million boxes. ams, spokeswoman for the Kathryn Grandy, a member
orchards in central Wash- the latest apple to spark a The top varieties are Gala Washington Apple Com- of the team marketing the
ington and has planted 80 big buzz in the United States (23, Red Delicious (20%) mission, which markets ap- apple.q
Qantas completes longest non-stop New York-Sydney flight

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia's "Overall, we're really happy challenges but that's been
Qantas on Sunday com- with how the flight went true every time technology
pleted the first non-stop and it's great to have some has allowed us to fly farther.
commercial flight from of the data we need to The research we're doing
New York to Sydney, which help assess turning this into should give us better strate-
was used to run a series of a regular service," said gies for improving comfort
tests to assess the effects Capt. Sean Golding, who and wellbeing along the
of ultra long-haul flights on led the four pilots. way," said Qantas Group
crew fatigue and passen- The flight was part of Proj- CEO Alan Joyce. Night
In this Aug. 20, 2015 file photo, two Qantas planes taxi on the ger jetlag. ect Sunrise — Qantas' goal flights usually start with din-
runway at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner to operate regular, non- ner and then lights off, but
Associated Press touched down in Sydney stop commercial flights he said that for this flight,
early Sunday morning af- from Australia's east coast "we started with lunch and
ter a flight of 19 hours and cities of Brisbane, Sydney kept the lights on for the first
16 minutes — the world's and Melbourne to Lon- six hours, to match the time
longest. Qantas said tests don and New York. Two of day at our destination. It
ranged from monitoring pi- more research flights are means you start reducing
lot brain waves, melatonin planned as part of the proj- the jetlag straight away."
levels and alertness to exer- ect evaluations - London to Professor Marie Carroll from
cise classes for passengers. Sydney in November and the University of Sydney
A total of 49 people were another New York to Syd- said she and fellow passen-
on board, in order to mini- ney in December. gers did a lot of stretching
mize weight and give the "We know ultra long-haul and group exercises at pre-
necessary fuel range. flights pose some extra scribed intervals.q