On this episode of Quirks & Quarks with Bob McDonald:

How do you like them apples? A researcher breeds climate-change tolerant fruit

Through a combination of crossbreeding and selection over more than 30 years, Christopher Walsh, professor emeritus in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland, has come up with two perfect apples for a warmer world. The two new varieties are heat-tolerant, blight-resistant, and are easy to harvest. His research is part of the Maryland Tree Architecture Program.

New documents retell the story of Rosalind Franklin’s contribution to DNA science

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the publication of the groundbreaking paper in the journal Nature that described the discovery of the structure of DNA. That work led to the 1962 Nobel Prize for three scientists. But not recognized was the scientist whose data and x-ray image of DNA provided the eureka moment for the discovery. That was Rosalind Franklin, a chemist and x-ray crystallographer from Kings College, London. But today, new evidence, uncovered by Matthew Cobb, a zoologist from The University of Manchester, supports Franklin’s role as an equal collaborator in the discovery. His research was published in Nature.

Desert birds have special belly feathers for carrying water for their chicks

The African sandgrouse are uniquely adapted to the dry environments in which they live. Unlike other birds, the sandgrouse are really good at collecting water — they can soak up to 15 per cent of their weight in water with their abdominal feathers and then carry it for many kilometres back to their chicks. Lorna Gibson, Matoula S. Salapatas professor of materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, teamed up with Johns Hopkins University’s Jochen Mueller to learn more about the unique structure of the sandgrouse feathers by studying them using powerful microscopes and micro CT scans. Their findings about the unique water-retaining structures in the feathers are published in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface.

Space mice give insight into how our microbiome could protect us from bone loss

Mice who travelled to the International Space Station lost bone mass, as astronauts also do, but a new study published in Cell Reports suggests their gut bacteria might have worked to slow the process down. Joseph Bedree, then a PhD student at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Forsyth Institute, was part of the team that studied the moustranauts after they returned from their space journeys. The researchers found changes in the microbial communities that live inside the mice, which seemed to be linked to bone growth. This small step for the mouse may take scientists closer to a leap in fighting bone loss in microgravity.

Physicist Brian Cox has become a globally famous science communicator because of his gifts for making complex subjects approachable. In his latest book, Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe, Cox tackles the enormous challenge of reconciling the fundamental clash of principles between gravity on a large scale and quantum theory. The professor of particle physics from the University of Manchester and the Royal Society told Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald how advances in his field are forcing us to consider a deeper view of reality.

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