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."

[null and void]

Pam's Purple Spirograph tracing tiny circles on his brain...

[Tax-chick]

Happy Friday! It’s a day. The catz say we should curl up in blankets and wait for the Sunbeam.

[Tax-chick]

I have to go to Walmart again.

[Monkey Face]

That’s a cool cartoon concept. Hard work never hurt anyone. (Well, unless the bosses mistreated them.)

I think of the things we didn’t have when I was growing up and then I think we’d be better off today if we still didn’t have them.

[Silentgypsy]

G’orning and Happy Friday!

[Silentgypsy]

Thank you for the gorgeous!

One question: Wasn’t Pat at the store with you when you purchased the pullover? Was he zoning out in electronics while you did the selection or something? Forget about the bullet train in CA; you need one between home and Wal Mart.

[Tax-chick]

I don’t know why he didn’t notice that the jacket he put in the cart didn’t have a zipper. Teen weirdness ...

[Silentgypsy]

They seem to embrace the philosophy that no inconvenience is too great for parents.

[Tax-chick]

Well said.

[ArGee]

They seem to embrace the philosophy that no inconvenience is too great for parents

And that's ... bad?

[Tax-chick]

Erm.

[Silentgypsy]

You’re joshing....

[NoCmpromiz]

If by “crunches” you mean the sound bacon makes when you eat it, then yes, I do crunches.

[NoCmpromiz]

(Not to mention that’s the sound my knees make when I move..)

[ArGee]

Joshing?

I’m ArGee.

;)

[Tax-chick]

Can you prove that?

[NicknamedBob]

"I think of the things we didn’t have when I was growing up and then I think we’d be better off today if we still didn’t have them."

On this subject I think about my great-uncle, who had a bucket well he had enclosed by a porch. He could draw up a gallon or two of water at a time and pour it into a bucket for drinking, with a dipper close by.

In the kitchen they had a classic woodstove and nearby a box of kindling. Preheating the oven consisted of putting in a handful of kindling and lighting it.

They didn't worry about power interruptions, and my gresat-uncle didn't suffer from insufficient exercise.

[Tax-chick]

Like camping!

[NicknamedBob]

His kitchen was very convenient; the bathroom, less so.

[Tax-chick]