Posted on 10/06/2018 2:02:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Pentagon research project called "Insect Allies." Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the project involves using gene-editing techniques like CRISPR to infect insects with modified viruses that could help make America's crops more resilient. If a cornfield were hit by an unexpected drought or suddenly exposed to a pathogen, for example, Insect Allies might deploy an army of aphids carrying a genetically modified virus to slow the corn plant's growth rate.
According to the DARPA website, these "targeted therapies" could take effect in a single growing season, potentially protecting the American crop system from food security threats like disease, flooding, frost and even "threats introduced by state or non-state actors.
… Insect Allies, is less concerned. "Anytime you're developing a new and revolutionary technology, there is that potential for [both offensive and defensive] capability," Bextine told The Washington Post. "But that is not what we are doing. We are delivering positive traits to plants… We want to make sure we ensure food security, because food security is national security in our eyes."
Insect Allies is still in the early stages of development, and at least four U.S. colleges (Boyce Thompson Institute, Penn State University, The Ohio State University and the University of Texas at Austin)have received funding to carry out research. Bextine told The Washington Post that the project recently achieved its first milestone — testing whether an aphid could infect a stalk of corn with a designer virus that caused fluorescence. According to the Washington Post, "the corn glowed."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
It’s from an idea in “Bill the Galactic Hero” by Harry Harrison.
“There have been rumors going around that I killed and ate some students who disappointed me from the last class to process through here.”
“Those rumors are true.”
What strange little eyes that kitteh has!
Good morning. I hope I can over-ride the fatigue this morning. I have a lot to do in the next four days.
Good morning. It’s Monday! But tomorrow is Tuesday, if we just wait for it.
I got the laundry sorted and one box packed. I’m going to try and pack another, but I have to sort my pills before I do anything else.
My nephew in St George weenied out on helping with the unload in Hurricane, so I’ll have to contact the Bishop in my ward there to see if some folks can show up to help. That is, if I can’t get a firm commitment from James. I want to ask him for helpers, but I don’t know how that’s going to work.
What a little beauty! Thank you.
“Well”, said Sam, “I’m back.”
Someone read the wrong forecast when programming this building for today. It’s a sauna in here. Sunny and 53 out there.
But, that’s the way Monday is.
Good morning to all. I see Face un-quit. And now the fun begins.
Whatever you do, don't switch them!!!
Fast kitten.
G’orning, y’all!
baby cheetah, born to run, really, really, really fast.
Yeah, but I won’t race with him, because he’s a cheetah.
Yes, they are really, really fast.
I guess if you can’t hear the New Yawk accent the pun gets lost.
I read ALL of your posts with a New Yawk dialect, so very little is lost on me. At least, on this website.
There is poster on FB that thinks his job is to improve me by public shaming. I told him I wasn’t as perfect as he was, and his reply was that I “still should try.”
He’s a friend of one of my nieces, so I try to tolerate him, but he’s getting idiotic. Time for ‘Face to hit the Ugly Button on him.
I could use some of his speed, today, for sure! Pretty little guy.
I had to stop by Walmart on the way home from the laundromat, and there’s a little guy that comes in every day to spend up to $25 on food.
This morning as I came out, he got out of his cart and told me he had something for me and produced a $25 gift card from Circle K. Now I have to check and see if Utah has Circle Ks or the card will be useless. The thought was nice, for sure.
He’s a retired policeman from Yonkers, I think he said.
Tell him to ping you when he's your age and you'll attempt to keep up with that version of him.
I almost said something like, “Stand down, small fry. I have shoes older than you are,” but then I’m like, “Why?”
People like him are covered in their own brand of Teflon, and are impervious to anything that doesn’t give them “feel good” strokes and pats on the head.
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