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."

[NoCmpromiz]

about to be the shortest day of the year!

This sundown at 4:30 thing is hard to take. When I was younger and living in Ohio at the far edge of this time zone we had at least a half hour longer.

The difference is noticeable when I call up the Deshler, OH rail cam. It can be dark here but still dusk there.

And I have a gray and white furbeast begging while sitting on my laptop, which is fortunately closed.. He and a contingent of his relatives already got their daily allotment of furbeast treats so his begging will gain naught.

[Monkey Face]

I don’t like dark days whether from overcast or the changing seasons, as it depresses me physically, mentally and emotionally. I have to turn on a lot of lights in the winter.

No furbeasts, here, just little feathered cheepers, but they don’t want to sit on my lap.

I feel like I’ve done a full day’s work! LOL!

[Tax-chick]

I went to Walmart. Pat’s birthday is Saturday, and he chose his cake. I made Anoreth an appointment at the hair salon on Saturday, for a “consultation” with Paige the Hair Designer, who can help Anoreth choose a style and color. Then she can make an appointment to have it done.

[ArGee]

That's why forty below is such a convenient temperature; it's the same in both Fahrenheit and Celcius.

Convenient for what, exactly? Getting out of working outdoors?

[ArGee]

Woah! I just figured out it’s 275.4Ks here. That feels so warm I will have to put on the AC.

K = 5/9(F-32)+273.15

[Monkey Face]

I changed my mind and went to Walgreen’s, after all. It just seemed like a thing to do since being cooped up in here all morning, owrking. Besides, its a beautiful day.

Tomorrow, I may tackle the kitchen again, though there isn’t much I can do with it until I can get a pantry in there. But I CAN shred! Twice, the day I moved in, I dropped the business end of the shredder, and thought for sure I had killed it. But nope. When I sat and made myself comfy for a shredding session last week, it started right up and kept going until I tried to put eight pages through the grinder instead of the recommended five. BEST doggone shredder I ever worked with!

I may try to get some bathroom stuff out of the way. I’ve almost got enough floor room in here now to assemble the bathroom cabinets. (They’ve been boxed up since I got them over two years ago!) The cabinets are very necessary and will free up floor space. I NEED it!

[Monkey Face]

That must have been maths. It made my head ache just to read it. Unnghh.

[Covenantor]

Bow ties make you sad?

You're kidding, right?

When wearing a tuxedo I'm on top of the world, feeling like Cary Grant, dancing like Fred Astaire, and looking like the maitre d' in a pod of orcas, slick, smooth, and dangerous. Putting on the Ritz...

[NoCmpromiz]

feeling like Cary Grant, dancing like Fred Astaire,

Umm..

Aren't they both dead?

[ArGee]

OK, THAT made me actually laugh.

[Monkey Face]

What a team! You guys should go on Broadway, you’re so funny!

[Tax-chick]

I want to go out with you! I’ll wear my black chiffon Claudette Colbert gown (from The Salvation Army)!

[NicknamedBob]

I know a guy who would probably like to see that happen, and it isn’t me.

[Tax-chick]

Why doesn’t anyone want to go out with me? I look great in my black chiffon! It makes a rustly noise.

[ArGee]

In case anyone here was thinking of letting a "right jolly old elf" climb down their chimbley into their home next week, remember:

[Covenantor]

Sounds very fine.

[NicknamedBob]

"Why doesn’t anyone want to go out with me? I look great in my black chiffon!"

Keep in mind, I've met your husband. He watched me as I drank his beer.

It was good beer, but I have no plans to push my luck.

[NoCmpromiz]

Speaking of..

[NicknamedBob]

Indeed ...

As Long As I Live

In one of my first adventures,
I traveled as a fox,
I then became a cat or two,
(I think outside the box!)

Of course, back in my caveman days,
So much I did not know!
The warm inviting firelight,
The cold, warmth-drinking snow.

As Robin Hood, my Merry Men,
Could entertain me well,
In hidden bowers of the wood,
Where I and they did dwell.

I didn’t like the dying,
But that’s a part of life.
You take the bitter and the sweet,
And struggle with the strife,

For this is why you’re living,
Here in the folded lands,
The flat landscape that opens up,
Uncovered by your hands.

Transferring wisdom through those funnels,
You call eyes into your head,
To give you memories of past lives,
As gifts of what you’ve read.

For now the thousand lives I’ve led,
Inure me to some pain,
Those joyous friends I will not see,
Unless I read again,

Yet still they wait, on dusty shelves,
For other eyes than mine,
Like goblets for the next to taste,
Their own first sips of wine.

NicknamedBob . . . . . June 26, 2008

[Tax-chick]

We don’t have a chimney.