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Apple detectives solved mystery of ancient tree and rewrote the history of fruit

71 points · 19 comments · nkurz

  1. altmanaltman · · focus · HN ↗
    Why is the headline written in a magical realism style in an article about the analysis of the apple tree? "Solved mystery of ancient tree"? "Rewrote the history of fruit"? Like okay, it's cool but it's not Game of Thrones
    1. bythreads · · focus · HN ↗
      Thinking gucci is gucci
    2. amelius · · focus · HN ↗
      It's the Reality Distortion Field™.

      Best known from The Bible, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler.

      Slightly more than half of the population is susceptible.

      1. jhbggjnjih · · focus · HN ↗
        > Best known from The Bible, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler.

        You did not just put these 4 things/people together in a single sentence. Tell me you didn’t. Please.

        Christ HN is turning into reddit.

        1. amelius · · focus · HN ↗
          The old reddit, I hope.
    3. dmos62 · · focus · HN ↗
      An excuse to say "apple detectives"? Choice of words drew me in, and I'm happy it did. This is quirky news; it's making a bit of geekery interesting to distracted geeks, like me.
      1. altmanaltman · · focus · HN ↗
        The subject is interesting and I am not doubting that. The story is interesting as well.

        But the headline is just weird, especially for an outlet like that. Why do we need to resort to goofy theatrics to attract people to science (interesting in itself) is the problem I have. Same reason why I detest people who genuinely think Kip Thorne's most famous work is Interstellar.

        1. dmos62 · · focus · HN ↗
          There's definitely something to be said about not trying to spin stories into something more. And, I'm usually on the other side of the barricade in these discussions. But, when I'm reading about apples, it's me being goofy, so it's nice when the author is tailoring for that. I would absolutely hate it if the same was done when writing about something I care about in a "real" way, for the lack of a better term.
      2. pholypilz · · focus · HN ↗

        [dead]

    4. petesergeant · · focus · HN ↗
      I mean "someone sent in an apple they found and it turns out to be an ancestor of most of other apples" supports 3 ad spots max.
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