How do you like them apples?

As I'm typing this I'm snacking on a granny smith apple, one of my favourite varieties. Even though you'll typically find only a half dozen or so different varieties at the grocery store, there are over 7500 different cultivars (though not all are eating apples). The apple is a member of the rose family, and as one might expect they have a long history. They originated in Asia, and Alexander the Great is credited with bring dwarf apples back to Greece in 300 BC. The first apple orchard in North America is said to have been planted in the 1600s in Massecheusetts.

AC wrote before about modern hybrid fruit. It should come as no surprise that having been around for centuries and being an important food crop, the apple has gone through several rounds of its own breeding to produce popular varieties we eat today. It can take 15-20 years to develop a new variety and promising cultivars are selected on the basis of appearance and flavour as well as ease of shipping, longevity in storage, and even length of stem to allow pesticides access to the top of fruit.

The granny smith apple I mentioned above is originally an Australian fruit, but Canada is famous for apple varieties of its own. Every McIntosh apple can trace its lineage to a tree discovered in 1811 in Dundas County, Ontario. One of its offspring, the Spartan (another one of my favourites) was developed in BC in 1936 as part of Agri-food Canada's apple breeding program. It's widely described as a cross between McIntosh and Newton Pippin but recent DNA tests have put the Newton parentage in question.

Over the past few weeks, I've been sampling several different apple types from the common Granny Smith (still my favourite) and McIntosh (which I find too soft) to less 'brandname' varieties such as Honeycrisp (which was almost unnaturally crisp and a bit too sweet) and Braeburn.

Extensive lists of apples, their origins and descriptions can be found here and here.

What's your favourite apple?

Comparing medical systems

It's been a few weeks now that I've been embedded in a research hospital in Japan for the bayblab. I've gotten to know some of the doctors here quite well, and we've shared notes about how our medical systems operate. I've found out some interesting tidbits, like the near monopoly of apple products here in the hospital, the difficulties of only having MD/PhD doing health science because of clinical duties etc. But one of the more interesting topics was health care coverage.

In Canada there is much debate about whether or not we should allow a two tier system. Currently any trip to the hospital is free, but there is no way to pay to get private surgery done earlier. Some people argue it would lessen the burden on our system and reduce waiting times. The Japanese health care system is interesting. Here you do have to pay if you have a job but it is subsidized depending on how much money you make, and will be covered if you need an extended stay like say in case of cancer. Childcare is the same, you pay depending on your salary, which for a doctor here would set you back approximately 500$/month.

Upon comparing notes I happened to ask whether medical marijuana was legal, as it is for us. I was a bit setback by the reaction I got. Not only is it not legal, but possession is a huge offense here. In fact the doctors here had no idea it had any medical properties and considered cannabis to be a very potent and toxic drug. I really wonder how such a view became so prevalent. Coming from a country where 17% of the population smokes regularly, and almost 2/3 have used it at some point in their life, I know fully well it is anything but dangerous. I applaud the efforts of patients in the United States who fight so hard despite their illness, to make sure they can get the medicine they need without being labeled a criminal... For more on this subject check out our latest podcast!