The Pentagon Wants to Make an Army of Virus-Spreading Insects. Scientists Are Concerned.

.livescience.com ^ | October 5, 2018 12:57pm ET | Brandon Specktor

[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."

[NicknamedBob]

"Bells on bobcats ring?"

After you.

No, really! Be my guest. I'll even hold your beer for you while you put the bell on the bobcat.

[Darksheare]

Well, the next line is “making children cry”.
So I’m assuming that either the belled bobcats run through repeatedly and scare the kids, or the kids are belling bobcats.
Which would be amusing to witness.

[Silentgypsy]

You get extra points and a recommendation for canonization if it’s not a glass top. In retrospect, the person primarily responsible for housekeeping should hold persons responsible for burning food onto those aluminum thingies at gunpoint while they scrub them.

[Silentgypsy]

If what they report on the homeschooling threads is accurate, the DOE should implode any day now. How on earth you tolerate the work environment is astonishing. There must be islands of sanity that sustain you.

[Silentgypsy]

Those young people seemed immune to the dampness and chills!

[NoCmpromiz]

immune to the dampness and chills!

Weren't we all. Back then...

[Tax-chick]

No, it’s a gas range, and the base is metal. Getting the crud off it involves Comet scouring powder and fingernails.

[Tax-chick]

[NicknamedBob]

Practicing the innocent look. I’m not fooled for a minute.

[Tax-chick]

She didn’t do it. It was James.

[Covenantor]

Pineapple surprise!

[ArGee]

There must be islands of sanity that sustain you.

Not much. But God is here (despite what the homeschooling threads say). And He sustains me.

[ArGee]

Happy Tuesday, everyone.

I just hate it when my alarm actually wakes me up, instead of telling me I need to get moving. My brain seems gummed up for hours.

But, coffee.

[NicknamedBob]

It could be worse. You could have a lifestyle which causes your alarm clock to tag along like a sleepy puppy as you push through your daily schedule.

Good thing alarm clocks haven’t discovered coffee.

[Silentgypsy]

G’dafternoon, y’all!

[Silentgypsy]

Good to hear.

[Silentgypsy]

So cute!

[Silentgypsy]

Looks like kitteh’s litter mate spread false rumor that they’re not being fed today.

[Silentgypsy]

Thirty-plus years’ worth of those flimsy aluminum things that required steel wool and kosher soap (the kind made with coconut oil). You prevent rust in the pad by freezing it in a little ziplock baggie between scrub sessions.

[ArGee]

Yellow!!!

How are you blueing?