Recent developments in quark nuclear physics

We provide an overview of recent work exploring the quark-mass dependence of hadronic observables and the associated role of chiral non-analytic behavior due to the meson-cloud of hadrons. In particular, we address an issue of great current interest, namely the degree of model independence of results obtained through a controlled extrapolation of lattice QCD simulation results. Physical insights gained from this research are highlighted. We emphasize how chiral effective field theory formulated with a finite-range regulator provides a reliable and model-independent extrapolation to the physical world. (orig.)